Relay Phone 101

[katiemerson]

Okay, so since I've been having trouble with my hearing, conversations on the phone have become harder. I can't really use my cell phone unless it is on speaker phone, which can get annoying if my room mate is trying to do something. It also means it is awkward if I go out in the hall or something to try to talk because people can hear everything.

So my doctor told me about relay phone service. I found one called NexTalk.net which seems to be what I need. You can get a number to have incoming calls and make outgoing ones which should be helpful.

But I don't really understand how it works. I was tempted to try to call myself to see how it works, but thought that would be weird.

So two basic questions, how do you go about using it? I've read a little about using GA for go ahead when you are finished and ready for the other person to talk, but what about other short/lingo things? Like TTYL for talk to you later or something? I'm actually really bad at these so wouldn't use them much, but does the typing person use them? What do I need to know. I also read about SK for stop keying, but don't know for sure what it is exactly? Like hanging up?

Second, I want to know what the conversation is like for the other person, the person I talk to. I assume the person reads what I write and then types what they say. Is there a lag while we are typing back and forth? Does the typing person act like me or does she say stuff in third person (ie. if I write "I am calling about..." would the typing person read "I am calling about..." or "the person is calling about..."). When there are pauses is it just blank silence or does the typing person say something like "we are typing" or something?

I need a relay phoning 101 class

 

[radioman]

basically when making a "text" relay call , you are the one typing in your conversation. you input the hearing person phone number and make the call to relay. the relay will announce themselves to you and place call. when the hearing person answers, they will announce its a relay call.

You gotta PRAY they don't hang up after they hear its a relay call. IF they do hang up, dont give up, call, call, call again until they give up and listen. Why am I telling you this? Because we allllll have to deal with this problem and it will NEVER go away. If you dont call back, then they will actually think its a prank call or scamer or telemarketer. So don't give us a bad name by giving up. call call call again.

By now you have a 50/50 chance of hearing person actually stay on the line with you if they never used a relay call before. If they answer, you just go on with normal conversation like who you are and reason for calling etc. Just don't forget to add GA for go ahead to let them speak. be pateint, the terp will need time to listen to conversation and type it to you. Hopefully by now you have someone who is patient enough to stay on the line with you to actually have a full conversation as it takes much longer then speakingg directly. IF you have good speaking voice, you might want to try the VCO feature which is voice carry over with the tty call. This is another topic altogether.

Now who to call? try calling one of your credit cards company and ask for your balance and maybe a question on your bill. good practice. or your local town office with questions related to your town. again good practice.

 

[farmerjoe]

Since you're a "late-deafened" person like myself you probably want to skip traditional relay services and go to something full duplex.

I'd recommend CapTel, I use it myself. It's not perfect but there's no "GA" involved, you and the person you're calling can talk over each other as much as you want

CapTel - Captioned Telephone | Hearing Loss, Hard of Hearing, Phones, Captioning, Phone Captions

You don't need any fancy equipment to use CapTel just high speed internet and a phone.
Both Hamilton Relay and Sprint Relay offer Web Captel service that works in your browser. Just sign up, then sign in and put in the number you want to call. Your phone rings, you pick up, and then you're connected to the person you want to call. The down side is that for some one to call you, they have to dial an 800# first, then your number.

Right now, the only way to get direct-dial inbound calls with captel is to have a captel phone. I have the 800i myself. Cost about $100.

Good luck!

 

[Anij]

I'd' consider looking into a type of phone called a "uniphone" - it's a special phone (insurance should help pay for it). I think that for your situation this might be the very best of all worlds, and they are well made. (mine I've had since 1997)

The uniphone functions as a:

TTY (where you'd type your side of the conversation)

A HCO (Hearing Carry Over) phone - for those who can hear, but not speak

A VCO (Voice Carry Over) phone - for those who speak clearly, but are Hoh or deaf

An Amplified Phone - there's 3 level volume control (reg, med, loud) for Hoh

A Standard phone - for hearing family members (just set the volume to "Reg")


For VCO mode you'd still use relay however you would speak into the phone, the person you're calling would hear your voice and then when they spoke back the relay operator will type what they say and you read it on the TTY display.

For TTY mode, to call another TTY, you just dial the number and will type back an forth basically like texting but adding GA (go ahead) when you "take a breathe" so the other person knows they can start typing to respond.

You'd see something like: "HI CAN I SPEAK TO JANE PLS GA sure, jane here ga" The standard is that CAPS is always them, the lower case is always you.

The "SK"(stop keying) is used to tell the other person that you have nothing more to say, so they have their last chance to add something or say goodbye. Once "SK" is said on both sides the person will end the call with "SKSK" which means "hanging up immediately" (it's basically the same as "bye, click" - ie a signal that the call is over and the other person needs to hang up as well.)

The only other very common abbreviation you'll need to know is "Q" or "QQ" which is used in the place of a 'real' question mark "?"... this is because it's much faster to use QQ then to shift etc to create the proper "?" (which some older TTYs don't even have)

If you'd like I can post a list of common TTY codes - but as long as you know GA, SK, SKSK, and QQ, you'll be fine as the rest aren't really TTY specific rather things like TMW (tomorrow), TTYL (talk to you later), BRB (be right back), BTW (by the way) etc that are commonly used in texting.



If you have a smart phone , there are also a number of IM relay services for those living int eh USA (and in Canada we have a few now as well).
This type of relay you would be typing, just like texting - sort of like a mini TTY. It's great for quick phone calls, but isn't really conducive to extending chats (just because the keyboard doesn't let you type as fast as on a real computer or TTY keyboard.

Hope that helps, if you have any other questions, please ask