For the last decade, the mobile revolution has been transforming communication and bringing people around the world together in ways they never could have imagined. However, while the world has been moving at an "Internet minute" for most of us, the visually impaired have been left fumbling around on their mobile keypads. Yes, mobile keypads are nifty and compact, but trying to create text messages on them when you are visually challenged can be both pain staking and time consuming.

Up until recently, this was the case for Barry Dickinson, who is visually impaired and who stumbled upon Textmagic's Email to SMS service while searching the Internet for ways to embrace this mobile technology that seemed out of his realm.

What made you choose Textmagic?

"I browsed the web looking for a way to send and receive SMS texts from the computer, which was compatible with the talking screen reading software I use. I found other ways of sending texts, but not receiving them.Tetxmagic is very easy to use by blind people with screen reading software."

How has SMS messaging improved your communication?

"Initially, I started using Textmagic to keep in touch with my children while they where out and about and I have since extended the service to include friends who don't check their emails on a regular basis. Before Textmagic, blind people were excluded from the SMS text revolution. Textmagic now allows us to communicate with friends and family on equal terms and in their preferred format. Our kids can text home, just like their friends, rather than having to talk in from of their friends which isn't COOL!"

 
As an oil exploration worker carrying out Seismic surveys around the world, TextMagic customer, Mr. Phillip's career takes him out to sea for long periods of time and often without any mobile signals. In early 2007, while conducting a survey off the coast of Tanzania, Mr. Phillips found that keeping touch with friends and relatives was extremely challenging as well as nerve-wracking at the thought of not being able to communicate in the case of an emergency. Without a mobile signal, the lapse in time it took for a loved one to arrive home and login to their email account was critical.

The search for a reliable SMS solution.

In May of 2007, Mr. Phillips took his search online for a reliable SMS service that would allow him to send text messages from a remote area without a mobile signal. His search brought him to various types of services and after some thorough research, decided that the Textmagic Email to SMS service was the best solution. The service required no software installation and provided the technology that allowed SMS communications to be sent and received within seconds. Responses to Mr. Phillips' urgent messages could come straight to his personal email account.

"I utilize TextMagic whenever I am on-board ship. Often times it's weekly and TextMagic has become invaluable when I need to contact a person urgently."

- Mr. Phillips, TextMagic Customer, United Kingdom

Are you experiencing similar challenges to your text messaging? We invite you to explore our many SMS products designed to meet all of your personal AND business communication needs.

Mobile phones have become the dominant mode of communication around the world and have introduced a broad spectrum of new ways in which people interact with eachother. Nowadays, companies can capture their targeted audience in a matter of seconds and friends can send urgent messages to eachother while on the road. But an often overlooked advantage of SMS technology is the efficiency in communication that it has brought to people with disabilities. For a hearing impaired person, SMS offers a way to communicate accurately and quickly and has subsequently become the most popular mobile solution for this demographic. And layering a service like TextMagic's Email to SMS can enhance the solution by allowing consumers to create longer, more emotional texts.

As it turns out, SMS has also improved communications for people with disabilities other than hearing. In a recent post by news commentator, Patricia E. Bauer, she sites how a mother in the U.S. reported that texting has allowed her autistic son to communicate effectively for the first time ever. The fact that SMS could open the doors of communication and be more than just a convenient mobile tool validates the TextMagic business model. In a survey conducted over the last two months to TextMagic customers, we came across several visually impaired people who have incorporated our service into their everyday communication. We tend to take the physical ability to text for granted, however, it is extremely challenging for someone visually impaired to compose a text message on a tiny mobile keypad. Almost impossible to create one that is precise.

Prior to discovering the Email to SMS service, TetxMagic customer, Philip Congreave, had little success with text messaging.  "I used to try sending messages on my mobile but it was a very tedious process and very frustrating. Using TextMagic is similar to using an email program with Inbox, Outbox and Sent Items Folders and a Send/ Receive facility. Being able to use a full keyboard makes composing very easy."  Mr. Congreave suggested using TextMagic with a screen-reading program such as Thunder which reads the words in the edit window aloud.

We invite you to learn more ways SMS is helping people with disabilities connect in a whole new way and to share your own experiences.

Prova Surveying Ltd. is a United Kingdom based Quantity Surveying and Project Management company. Prova Surveying management faces the challenge of communicating with clients on the job in an efficient and economical way. Time is money when your job is preparing cost plans and reports and performing quantity surveying services for major clients on distant job sites. Telephone reception can be spotty and keeping an audited trail of the communications is virtually impossible. Prova Surveying had been using the Magic Message service but needed a solution to meet all of its business SMS needs.

When you are dealing with other peoples’ money, it’s imperative to keep an audited trail of communications. In his Google search for a service that could offer reliable and traceable communications, Prova Surveying Ltd. owner, Angus Cockburn, discovered TextMagic. The TextMagic Email to SMS Service was Mr. Cockburn’s solution to sending and receiving documented text messages from his email account to mobile phones. TextMagic offered a pricing plan that fit into his budget designed around how many texts he estimated using for messaging his team on a daily basis. Furthermore, the fact that TextMagic credits never expire was even more of an incentive for Mr. Cockburn to test out the SMS service.

Can integrating a new communications program into a small business be quick and easy? The implementation was seamless and did not require any additional software installation. The TextMagic technology enabled Mr. Cockburn’s current software to send text messages and created a simple TextMagic icon on his desktop. The designated icon is now used for all of his Prova Surveying related texting.Each thread of communication that is sent and received via TextMagic is recorded and saved on his PC.

“TextMagic is a valuable tool for a company like Prova Surveying Ltd,” says Mr. Cockburn. “SMS is a quick and economical method of communication and the facility of having a record of communications is vital to our business.”

www.provauk.com