Patricia Obo-Nai
Vodafone Ghana marked the first anniversary of ‘Super Care’ by placing 7,000 video calls through a platform specially designed for the hearing impaired.
Vodafone, 12 months ago, launched the telecom industry’s first disability friendly product.
It’s a dedicated service line for hearing impaired persons in the country.
The initiative, which forms part of Vodafone’s efforts to complement government’s digital inclusion project in the country, provides an equal communication opportunity to hearing impaired persons in the country.
Speaking at the first anniversary, which saw the distribution of free hand sets and other gifts to the hearing impaired, the head of Fixed Business at Vodafone, Patricia Obo-Nai, said Vodafone Super Care is a specialized customer service line for speech and hearing impaired people with trained specialized customer service personnel that would assist customers in that aspect.
She added that by dialing *494# a hearing impaired customer can request for either a video or whatsapp call, which would be returned by Vodafone for the customer to be assisted.
“Today marking the one-year anniversary, we have received over 7,000 video calls since we started this exercise so we believe it’s a good thing and we brought them much more,” she added.
Mrs Obo-Nai said Vodafone has revamped the offer, saying“We have given them more data in the allocation we did last year with the same price. There is also free internet on the day of the anniversary and a whole month of free Vodafone Cash for them just to show our commitment that we do not want to leave anyone digitally behind.”
One of the beneficiaries, who shared his experience with the media, said prior to the introduction of Vodafone Super Care, telecommunication among the hearing and speech impaired was limited to only text messages which had its limitations.
He, however, said that after using the Vodafone Super Care, which provides video calls at very low cost, communication among the members has improved.
“For one year that I have started using this I can link up with people, and it’s a very special thing I am enjoying,” he said.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri