Citizens Advice Staff Are All Ears

The team at the Citizens Advice Direct office on Bell Street is now fully trained to deal with calls from people who are deaf or hard of hearing. The office deals with between 600 and 900 calls a week and the team of 13 staff and 55 volunteers are now proficient in the use of the Royal National Institute for Deaf People, RNID, Typetalk telephone system. Typetalk connects people who cannot speak or hear by phone with other people through a text-to-voice and voice-to-text relay service. Joe Forrest, who has been operations manager at the office since it opened in November 2004 told the LOCAL NEWS: ‘Out team are far more confident in dealing with Typetalk calls from deaf or speech impaired people. Talking more slowly and asking more succinct questions are among the things we have had to look at.’ Trainers from RNID visited the Glasgow branch to provide on the spot training. The Citizens Advice Direct service differs from a traditional Citizens Advice Bureau as it deals with both telephone and face to face appointments with customers. To access the Typetalk service call the office on 0844 848 9600 with the prefix 18001. The office is open Monday to Friday 9am to 8pm and Saturday 10am to 2pm.