June News

We have now accumulated some data which may be statisticlly significant.

The average number of messages seems to have grown to about 75 a month.

Some users seem to be more than a thousand. Some are still less than
10. We look forward to the researchers to refine the data and tell us
what it means and how we can improve.

A letter from a Mother of a deaf student

For some time I have wanted to write to thank you for your roles in providing my daughter and I with Motorola Pagers and service from Bell Mobility. It is only this week when her pager was temporally out of service that I realized just how important this tool is to my daughter and her development.

My daughter, is a 13 year old and is currently leading a very busy life. She is in a theater group, she plays hockey and soccer and is learning to sail and canoe. You can imagine what it is like trying to keep up with her. As in most families life gets busy sometimes and miss communications tend to surface. The pager has been invaluable. We have a system in place for checking in with each other every night after school. I can let her know if I am running late, or need to go food shopping. Alexandra in return can let me know how much home work she has and what her after school plans are.

We live on an island and over this winter we had many problems getting back and forth through the ice. We were able to give each other regular updates. This is particularly important because the boat can leave at two different locations over the winter.

The Motorola pager and Bell service have also played a part in improving her literacy. Not only is she keeping in touch with me she dialogues with her friends, my friends and our family. This may seem like a small thing, but for a Deaf child who uses sign language, how ever supportive family and friends are, our signing abilities tend to be limited. The pager has given her direct access to her support group and our extended family.

I can not thank you enough. My favorite messages are the ones that start with "Where are you Mommy?" and end with "I Love You." My second favorite messages are "I Love you Mom where are you ?"

Thank you once again.

(Mother of a deaf student)