Any Online Free (or Cheap) Tty That Can Call Normal Phones?

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oook

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Trying to help an elderly relative with hearing problems.

Relative needs to be able to make phone calls to normal landline phones (like business customer service lines) via TTY or text.

No landline phone or even VOIP phone, just a mac laptop. Need to be able to make ougoing calls to normal landline phones- including business customer service numbers- from a computer only and via text.

Email/Text/Snapchat/video chat/Facebook Messenger/postal mail/having friends make the calls/etc. will Not work for this person for all their needs.

They need to be able to use online TTY or text to voice to be able to call, say, their utility company. Texting, emailing, video chat, landline phones, written mail, Snapchat, etc. are not an option for this person and won't work for their needs.

They've had a very frustrating time trying to even call their local television company to change their service plan-- that company won't accept changes by mail or online or email, and phone calls to a normal landline business phone is the online option.

Any ideas? It needs to be affordable, and not a landline phone-- too expensive for this person's fairly limited needs. Needs to be text-to-voice so they can call a business customer service phone line or another elderly relative and have text-to-voice converted.

I've tried everything and can't find an option for them.

Tried Sprint Relay and they never could approve/verify this person's info online, and the person doesn't have a way to call Sprint Relay's customer service phone number to verify themselves.

Any online text-to-normal phone line options that are free or cheap? And that are Not video chat/ASL, just text-to-voice so this elderly relative can call normal voice phone lines like business customer service lines or their elderly cousins?

Thanks for any advice. :)
 
Did you try calling your phone company handicap office , they may be able to tell where to get a free phone that fit the person needs .
 
DeafDucky said:
iOS has an app for TTY now I think...

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207033
Click to expand...

Yeah, I noticed the TTY in the accessibility settings when I got my new phone the other day.
Software TTY
Software TTY can be accessed from the Phone app and allows you to make and receive TTY phone calls.

Hardware TTY
Hardware TTY allows you to connect an external TTY device to make and receive TTY calls.

When both software and hardware TTY options are enabled, incoming calls will default to hardware TTY, if connected
Click to expand...
 
We tried SprintIP Relay. After nearly 6 months of trying to get them to verify relative's info, nothing. They want relative to call them on their own-- but relative has no way to call themselves without TTY in the first place. Relative wouldn't be able to hear them at all. For some reason SprintIP couldn't verify relative online after multiple tries, very frustrating process that we gave up on.
 
Hmm. Thanks, that's cool. I can't seem to find it on my iPhone 6s under General > Accessibility. I wonder if it's only on the very latest iOS. Can it do text-to-voice? That would be perfect if it can. :)
 
Thanks, we'll look into InnoCaption, that seems like it will help.

It's curious how it seems there's nothing like text-to-voice these days. I guess people have mostly all shifted to internet IM apps or email.

I didn't realize quite how frustrating something like hearing loss with daily interactions to businesses was until I couldn't find the type of app we were trying to find for most of this year, and couldn't get Sprint IP to verify my relative, and can't find a list of TTY numbers for their, say, utility company even. Wow. I would have thought businesses would be a little more accommodating at least, especially utility and basic companies they need that will only give their account info/change services via phone.
 
LoveBlue said:
Yeah, I noticed the TTY in the accessibility settings when I got my new phone the other day.
Click to expand...


Ah, it seems that iphone TTY requires an iphone tty adaptor and a physical TTY device too. o-O No wonder I couldn't see it in my phone's accessibility settings, I don't have any of that. :)

I'm so clueless on all this.
 
oook said:
Ah, it seems that iphone TTY requires an iphone tty adaptor and a physical TTY device too. o-O No wonder I couldn't see it in my phone's accessibility settings, I don't have any of that. :)

I'm so clueless on all this.
Click to expand...
As DD says, it's available with iOS10. I don't use TTY, so I don't have a TTY device.
 
What you can get in the way of equipment from the state varies from state to state. For things like a captioned phone or TTY in Illinois you need a working phone line. http://www.itactty.org/
 
oook said:
Thanks, we'll look into InnoCaption, that seems like it will help.

It's curious how it seems there's nothing like text-to-voice these days. I guess people have mostly all shifted to internet IM apps or email.

I didn't realize quite how frustrating something like hearing loss with daily interactions to businesses was until I couldn't find the type of app we were trying to find for most of this year, and couldn't get Sprint IP to verify my relative, and can't find a list of TTY numbers for their, say, utility company even. Wow. I would have thought businesses would be a little more accommodating at least, especially utility and basic companies they need that will only give their account info/change services via phone.
Click to expand...

Instead of a given business or utility having a TTY themselves I am seeing more and more ads that suggest the TTY user call 711. 711 in the universal state relay number in the USA. When calling that you can have your call setup so that you type on your TTY and the CA voices what you typed to the business or other person or place that you called. Or you can have your calls setup as using VCO (voice carryover) where you talk for yourself but the CA types to your TTY what the other person is saying. VCO does need both a TTY and a phone to talk into unless the latest TTY software in iOS10 offers that. My cell phone uses Android so I don't know about iOS.
 
For use TTY in iOS 10, you are required to have voice plan before you can use TTY.
 
Foxrac said:
For use TTY in iOS 10, you are required to have voice plan before you can use TTY.
Click to expand...

really? Hm will have to check that but would have thought data plan not voice plan unless you plan to use VCO option...
 
DeafDucky said:
really? Hm will have to check that but would have thought data plan not voice plan unless you plan to use VCO option...
Click to expand...

Yes, there is proof.

This feature is available for plans from US carriers only. Standard voice call rates apply for both Software and Hardware TTY calls.
Click to expand...

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207033

For without voice plan, Verizon charge 25 cents per minute for using TTY, also AT&T charge 40 cents per minute as well.
 
Moot point I think because just about every cell carrier has voice plan included as far as I know unless someone still has a data only plan granfathered in...
 
DeafDucky said:
Moot point I think because just about every cell carrier has voice plan included as far as I know unless someone still has a data only plan granfathered in...
Click to expand...

Not mine, I have data + text only plan so there is no voice plan.

Verizon has data + text only plan for deaf people who aren't using voice.

In fact, TTY mode on iOS requires any plans that include voice or charge per minutes, also I enabled AT&T to block the all incoming and outcoming calls so TTY mode will be pointless for me.

There is free software that can use relay if it is necessary.

My post #17 is for people with data + text only (no voice plan).
 
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Hm.. was never aware of the verizon plan for deaf only- otherwise I might have gotten that one to same money :P... I looked on their site too but don't see that as an option anywhere.
 
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