Miss-Delectable
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http://www.nyunews.com/features/citylife/9983.html
When Steinhardt senior Keri Horowitz calls a take-out restaurant, it can take a few tries before the employees don't hang up on her. It's understandable, considering that the first thing they hear when she calls is, "Hi, this is IP Relay operator 7256 calling with a relay call."
"When I make some phone calls such as when I want to order food or if I make an academic phone call, I notice people don't want to take the relay call and hang up on me," Horowitz said. "So sometimes I have to call repeatedly before I can get a person to stay on the line and put up with IP Relay."
Horowitz is deaf. She uses Internet Protocol Relay to make audible phone calls when she cannot use a text-messaging service. IP Relay is a service provided by the government and available through several vendors that allows deaf or hard-of-hearing individuals to use a computer or another electronic device to contact an IP Relay operator, who then serves as a middleman from the computer to a phone.
Horowitz, who spoke with WSN using the IP Relay service, said she uses her computer and her T-Mobile Sidekick to access IP Relay through AOL Instant Messenger.
But as with any system, there is potential for abuse. Lisa Markkula, who works for the website StopRelayAbuse.com, said that a large percentage of relay calls are from hearing people.
"At least half the calls are not legitimate," said Markkula, who worked as an IP Relay operator for almost two years in Tucson, Ariz. until 2003. "My experience was that 75 percent or more were not legitimate."
Operators are obligated to say whatever users type into the IP Relay service, and she said she often felt she was being used as a tool for fraud and sexual abuse.
The Federal Communications Commission, which operates the service, says IP Relay is available to anyone with access to the internet through a computer, personal digital assistant, web-capable telephone or other device, according to its website.
Representatives from the FCC were unavailable for comment, but the website does not warn against abusing the system. Still some people, including NYU students, have said that they abuse the system on a regular basis.
"I've used IP Relay to play tricks on my friends and scare them," said one freshman who refused to give his name. "I would call people on IP Relay, and say things to make them feel incredibly uncomfortable, such as, 'will you date me' or 'I want to touch you.' It gives everyone a good laugh because it is someone you don't know saying awkward things to your friends."
Markkula said on top of the sexually explicit material she was forced to read, she also relayed business scams and phone calls from hearing people who simply ran out of minutes on their cell phones.
This abuse of IP Relay can cause problems for deaf individuals like Horowitz, who rely on IP Relay to help make routine and emergency phone calls. She recalled a recent incident when she was with her boyfriend, who is also deaf, and was unable to use the service for an emergency call.
"I was out to eat with my boyfriend and I had a horrible muscle spasm. I was frantically trying to call my mother through IP Relay and I couldn't get ahold of her," she said. "I didn't know if I should leave the car at the restaurant since my mom uses it for work and have my boyfriend drop me off at home, or if I should try to bear with it and drive home. I couldn't get an operator. No one was answering."
She said her neck and upper body had gone through a muscle wry - a lockjaw of the muscles in the upper body.
"Because I couldn't get ahold of my mom and since she had work the next day, I just drove home and it was awful," Horowitz said. "I was really scared I was going to hit a car. I couldn't change lanes. I couldn't move. I was really furious because I kept saying over and over, 'if only an operator answered my call I wouldn't have been stuck in that situation.'"
Markkula said she knew people in the command area of the call floor who would say how backed up the system was. She believes much of the delay is due to abuse.
Horowitz said she is thankful that IP Relay exists because it lets her do things she would otherwise be unable to do due. But she said it frustrates her that people are abusing this system.
"It upsets me, of course, because I need to use IP Relay and I wouldn't want to decrease the value of IP Relay or the respect for IP Relay operators because it's working very well as a means of communication for me," Horowitz said. "I would want them to understand that's how deaf people contact people for business, personal or academic reasons."
Markkula said citizens should contact the FCC or their congressman to bring light to this issue. She added that the system should have some type of verification process to ensure that it does not get abused.
"It costs $1.30 a minute for each relay call that is made, and it isn't the relay user that has to pay that," she said. "It is all of us. Everyone who has a phone pays a little bit for IP Relay."
She said service providers make money off illegitimate calls because the government pays them for however many calls they take. This is partly why the system has not been changed, she said.
"It just burns me up that a service that should basically be a good thing to have is being abused," she said. "A deaf mother should be able to call a doctor or pharmacist in the middle of the night to call about a sick child, or even to just order a pizza. But to abuse that kind of service ... it's just unbelievable to me." •
When Steinhardt senior Keri Horowitz calls a take-out restaurant, it can take a few tries before the employees don't hang up on her. It's understandable, considering that the first thing they hear when she calls is, "Hi, this is IP Relay operator 7256 calling with a relay call."
"When I make some phone calls such as when I want to order food or if I make an academic phone call, I notice people don't want to take the relay call and hang up on me," Horowitz said. "So sometimes I have to call repeatedly before I can get a person to stay on the line and put up with IP Relay."
Horowitz is deaf. She uses Internet Protocol Relay to make audible phone calls when she cannot use a text-messaging service. IP Relay is a service provided by the government and available through several vendors that allows deaf or hard-of-hearing individuals to use a computer or another electronic device to contact an IP Relay operator, who then serves as a middleman from the computer to a phone.
Horowitz, who spoke with WSN using the IP Relay service, said she uses her computer and her T-Mobile Sidekick to access IP Relay through AOL Instant Messenger.
But as with any system, there is potential for abuse. Lisa Markkula, who works for the website StopRelayAbuse.com, said that a large percentage of relay calls are from hearing people.
"At least half the calls are not legitimate," said Markkula, who worked as an IP Relay operator for almost two years in Tucson, Ariz. until 2003. "My experience was that 75 percent or more were not legitimate."
Operators are obligated to say whatever users type into the IP Relay service, and she said she often felt she was being used as a tool for fraud and sexual abuse.
The Federal Communications Commission, which operates the service, says IP Relay is available to anyone with access to the internet through a computer, personal digital assistant, web-capable telephone or other device, according to its website.
Representatives from the FCC were unavailable for comment, but the website does not warn against abusing the system. Still some people, including NYU students, have said that they abuse the system on a regular basis.
"I've used IP Relay to play tricks on my friends and scare them," said one freshman who refused to give his name. "I would call people on IP Relay, and say things to make them feel incredibly uncomfortable, such as, 'will you date me' or 'I want to touch you.' It gives everyone a good laugh because it is someone you don't know saying awkward things to your friends."
Markkula said on top of the sexually explicit material she was forced to read, she also relayed business scams and phone calls from hearing people who simply ran out of minutes on their cell phones.
This abuse of IP Relay can cause problems for deaf individuals like Horowitz, who rely on IP Relay to help make routine and emergency phone calls. She recalled a recent incident when she was with her boyfriend, who is also deaf, and was unable to use the service for an emergency call.
"I was out to eat with my boyfriend and I had a horrible muscle spasm. I was frantically trying to call my mother through IP Relay and I couldn't get ahold of her," she said. "I didn't know if I should leave the car at the restaurant since my mom uses it for work and have my boyfriend drop me off at home, or if I should try to bear with it and drive home. I couldn't get an operator. No one was answering."
She said her neck and upper body had gone through a muscle wry - a lockjaw of the muscles in the upper body.
"Because I couldn't get ahold of my mom and since she had work the next day, I just drove home and it was awful," Horowitz said. "I was really scared I was going to hit a car. I couldn't change lanes. I couldn't move. I was really furious because I kept saying over and over, 'if only an operator answered my call I wouldn't have been stuck in that situation.'"
Markkula said she knew people in the command area of the call floor who would say how backed up the system was. She believes much of the delay is due to abuse.
Horowitz said she is thankful that IP Relay exists because it lets her do things she would otherwise be unable to do due. But she said it frustrates her that people are abusing this system.
"It upsets me, of course, because I need to use IP Relay and I wouldn't want to decrease the value of IP Relay or the respect for IP Relay operators because it's working very well as a means of communication for me," Horowitz said. "I would want them to understand that's how deaf people contact people for business, personal or academic reasons."
Markkula said citizens should contact the FCC or their congressman to bring light to this issue. She added that the system should have some type of verification process to ensure that it does not get abused.
"It costs $1.30 a minute for each relay call that is made, and it isn't the relay user that has to pay that," she said. "It is all of us. Everyone who has a phone pays a little bit for IP Relay."
She said service providers make money off illegitimate calls because the government pays them for however many calls they take. This is partly why the system has not been changed, she said.
"It just burns me up that a service that should basically be a good thing to have is being abused," she said. "A deaf mother should be able to call a doctor or pharmacist in the middle of the night to call about a sick child, or even to just order a pizza. But to abuse that kind of service ... it's just unbelievable to me." •