(NARRATOR) Ana Lucia Alvarez. Philology student at UNED.
(ANA) I am a student at UNED.
I study at the Faculty of Philology and I'm deaf.
I need support products to go to the lessons, to talk on the phone,
to go to the movies, for my daily life constantly.
I wear a hearing aid, which I've had to pay myself. I also have a cochlear implant,
without these technical aids I would not hear anything or hardly communicate with people.
I benefit from the text, especially with regards to subtitling on television,
and DVDs that also have captions.
I also benefit from the vibration in the mobile phone, I use it as an alarm clock.
I also benefit from visual images that appear on my mobile phone,
if I receive a message, and also on the computer.
When I use the computer, Windows has a very productive option
to turn warning sounds into visual warnings.
In the Control Panel, in Accessibility Options, the sound tab,
has an option that allows Windows to generate visual warnings when the system beeps,
as well as text equivalent to voice and sound legends.
I usually use instant messaging, and mainly through Internet,
both with the mobile phone and with the computer.
The fact that Internet is increasingly present in the mobile phone
allows people like me to benefit because the answer is instantaneous.
In the case of text messages I use them when I know that the other person does not have internet in their mobile phone.
Although I do not use the word predictor I know there are many people who use it,
but I do not use because messages become very long, and that's expensive.
Instead with texting abbreviations everything is done much faster and takes up less room.
Now it's much cheaper for me to communicate with the mobile phone. With WhatsApp, for example,
I pay an Internet fee, which covers it.
whereas text messages are quite expensive.
A good hearing aid is the magnetic loop, which allows you to hear better in rooms,
whether in public institutions, cinemas, theaters, to be able to talk on the phone, or in classes.
Unfortunately it is a practice that is not yet widespread, but should be encouraged
because it is a real help for people with hearing problems.
Hello. No, still nothing. No, I will let you know. Well, when I finish the exam I will tell
and you can come to pick me, okay? Ok, see you later.
If there is an emergency I can have difficulties.
Although it is true that I can call for help,
I can not answer to the questions people ask me or to their indications.
Specifically a couple of years ago I had a car accident and the person whom I hit with the car
had to call the police, and call my relatives.
I think right now they are creating new services to alleviate these situations,
but to this day I still do not know the content of the services.
There are important supports that help in everyday life.
For example in my house I have installed a system whereby
when the doorbell rings the lights are lit and go out as a warning.
At the same time I have installed a videocamera at the entrance door
that gives me confidence because I can see who is ringing the doorbell.
I, as a citizen and as a student, would like to access all the services
that can be accessed by a hearing person.
This could be achieved by raising awareness worldwide.
As a student, for example, I would like to access the radio programs at UNED,
all videos that are prepared at UNED, many of them now have captions,
but there is still a lot of work to be done.
In the case of subtitling it is very important, that there is an awareness in the television industry,
that captions don't stop in the key point of a film,
that Spanish films are also subtitled,
not only foreign ones, in cinemas for example.
And I also would like that everything could be accessible for people with disabilities,
not only deaf but blind and all kinds of disabilities.