Textphone- anyone know where I can get one?

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Anyone know where I can buy a textphone also known as a Minicom I think? Having researched it seems to be a good solution for my Mum who can’t hear us on the phone at all. She can’t take on any new tech - or even a mobile phone! - so texting or email isn’t an option. I wondered if FaceTime or similar had voice to text subtitles options but I haven’t found anything. I think she would struggle with using that anyway. I’ve heard about the relay system but even that might be a bit complicated. And when I look for text phones to buy they seem to be discontinued. I feel there must be something fir people who struggle to hear even with amplification and who struggle to type etc. Would be very grateful if anyone can help as it’s so hard to keep in touch otherwise.

I think the text phone service was withdrawn years ago when things like email and text messages came in and was replaced by text relay.

Heres the shop for Action on hearing loss (used to be RNID) I’d urge you to rethink specialist phones as the amplification on some of them is immense !
www.hearinglossconnevans.co.uk/viewPage.do?id=index

Here’s the BT page with details on text relay and ‘try before you buy’ centres www.btplc.com/inclusion/MakingCallingEasier/index.htm

Plus I read somewhere about a Google app that would live transcribe audio - ambulance men were using it to talk to deaf patients whilst wearing masks. The technology exists so I’m sure there is an app configuration somewhere. I was also on a teams call recently that had a live transcript so that may be another option. Facebook messenger has an audio transcribe so maybe you could use that in a messenger video call ?

Here’s another link www.deafcouncil.org.uk/deaf-access-to-communications/relay-services/

Thanks for all that very useful information Rainyday - so helpful. Looks like we need to look again at amplified phones - I will look into the other options too in case they are also useful - thank you

Oh and if your mother wears hearing aids and finds that they ‘howl’ or she can’t hear she needs to move the switch to the T position (if it has one) and position the phone to her hearing aid, not her ear. Get her to move it all over and although it might seem unnatural at first she’ll end up using the ‘power’ of her hearing aid to ‘boost’ the amplification of the phone. (Not technically correct but you get the drift)

Great thank you - will try that out