Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Modified smoke alarms help hearing impaired

Source Link - Modified smoke alarms help hearing impaired

The Broken Hill Hearing and Resource Centre has received 11 modified smoke alarms from the fire brigade for people who have a hearing impairment.

The alarms were handed over as part of a joint project called Sleep Safe.

The Broken Hill station officer, Sue Collins, says the smoke alarms are more complex than a regular alarm.

"A hearing able person can just go down to the hardware store and buy a $10 alarm - a person with a hearing impairment cannot do that," she said.

"These alarms consist of three different components, a detector with an RF receiver in them, a receiving unit which has a strobe light attached and a vibrating pad which goes under the pillow.

"The unit all together costs something like $450."

The coordinator of the Hearing and Resource Centre, Cath Bonnes, says donations are needed if more smoke alarms are to be purchased.

"There are people out there ... [who] can afford to give to us, we know everyone can't, but we would be grateful for any assistance whatever and Broken Hill can be proud that it's looking after their own," she said.

No comments:

Post a Comment