Today, our friends at iPhone Atlas report that AT&T has introduced a new Text Accessibility Plan (TAP) for the iPhone developed with the help of representatives from the hearing and speech impaired community. The plan was developed for people who are deaf, hearing impaired or have another speech or hearing loss disability.

The cost of the iPhone only TAP is $40.00 per month, which pays for unlimited SMS messages, unlimited data usage (email and web) and Visual VoiceMail (which would have limited use for the hearing impaired). Voice calling is available at $.40 per minute on a pay-per-use basis. So phone calls can be placed in an emergency if needed.

Customers need to qualify for TAP by submitting an application to the program. Once the iPhone is activated the customer can call the AT&T National Center for Customers with Disabilities to learn more about the iPhone TAP program.

This type of plan will certainly be essential if iPhones are to be implemented as teaching and learning tools on college campuses.