Dubai: When Mohammad Hafiz’s car broke down, he had to wait for two hours before help came — but only by chance. The Emirati, who is hearing impaired, could not call for help at the time of his emergency.
Luckily, a police car passed by and spotted him. Only then did help come.
“I sent text messages asking for help. It was very difficult to communicate with people to help me,” Hafiz, 23, told reporters through the help of the Sanad Relay Smart App.
Hafiz believes this new app, which he helped fine tune with the Community Development Authority (CDA), will help the hearing-impaired interact with others.
The free smart app was launched on Tuesday along with the Sanad Relay Centre that will provide instant support for people with hearing impairment by translating sign language to the people they are talking to.
“The idea was based on a dire need to integrate people with hearing impairments into society and enable them to avail of services without having a sign language translator shadowing their every step,” Khalid Al Kamda, Director-General of CDA, said.
“It will empower and enable people with hearing impairment to express themselves when they are requesting for government service or from the private sector,” he added.
Ready for download
The app can be downloaded on iPhones and Android devices. It has three options: video chat, voice call, and web chat.
Three sign language specialists at the relay centre are on standby to receive the call or video chat and translate and relay the message from the user who is hearing impaired to the person he is talking to.
Hafiz said the app will be most useful to the 3,000 people with hearing impairment in the UAE, especially for their medical needs.
“Whenever I am at a medical facility, it’s always a challenge as there is no sign language specialist who could translate what I’m trying to say to the doctor,” Hafiz said, as translated through the smart app.
“I usually take my brother everywhere to translate for me but he can’t translate properly because there are medical conditions that he isn’t familiar with.”
Although Hafiz’s brother is very supportive of him, Hafiz said his brother cannot shadow him all the time as he also has to work. This is where the Sanad Relay smart app comes in as they can call the centre and a translator can help as soon as possible.
Currently, the centre has three translators for Arabic. CDA is planning to recruit more translators for English and Urdu speakers. The centre is still assessing the timings for the translators as they have yet to pinpoint the time of day when the demand for translation is highest.
Al Kamda encouraged the public to download the app so they, too, can help provide an inclusive society to the hearing impared.
How it works:
1) Download the CDA Sanad Relay app on your smartphone
2) Provided you have WiFi or mobile data, click the button for the web chat, video chat, or voice call
3) The person with hearing impairment can communicate with the translator at the Sanad Relay Centre. The translator can either directly translate and relay the message to the person the user is talking to or call him on his mobile phone
