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http://news.tmcnet.com/news/2005/nov/1211232.htm
A couple recent news items highlighted the attention the telecommunications industry is giving its deaf and hard of hearing customers.
The nation's largest Telecommunications Relay Services provider, Sprint, has announced that it is offering more choice and flexibility for the deaf and hard-of-hearing through enhancements to Sprint IP Relay and Sprint Video Relay Service.
Sprint IP Relay, an Internet relay service, has launched a more user-friendly layout, a shorter Web address and faster user connectivity. On November 1, Sprint launched two new Video Relay Service enhancements to support sign language users, Sprint VRS Voice Carry Over and Spanish VRS, and extended its VRS hours to 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Mike Ligas, director of Sprint Relay said the enhancements to Sprint IP Relay and Video Relay Services render Sprint Relay accessible to more deaf and hard-of-hearing people.
Sprint IP Relay is a free service that allows people who are deaf or hard of hearing to communicate with hearing individuals from any computer without having to use traditional bulky, cumbersome TTY equipment.
Sprint VRS VCO allows a deaf or hard-of-hearing user, who prefers to voice for themselves, to speak directly to their party while a video interpreter signs what the hearing person is saying. Through Spanish VRS, video interpreters can now translate sign language to spoken Spanish and vice versa. Operating hours for Spanish VRS are 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Central time, Monday through Friday.
Sprint VRS, now available any time day or night, enables users who use sign language to communicate via videoconferencing with a video interpreter through the Internet. The interpreter relays the signed conversation over a standard phone in real time to the hearing caller. By using sign language over the full-motion video, the sign language user can communicate in their natural language and convey facial expression and cues to ensure nothing gets lost in the translation. The sign language user needs a videophone with a television or a Web cam with a computer.
Also the National Association of the Deaf, joined by other disability organizations, called upon Congress to enact legislation mandating disability access to Internet-based products and services by the end of this Congress.
"The nation needs broadband, everywhere, now, and at affordable rates -- this is true for no one more than people with disabilities," NAD officials said.
Following up on testimony presented at last week's hearing before the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, given by NAD governmental affairs consultant Frank Bowe and delivered on behalf of 16 national, state and local organizations of, by, and for people with disabilities, Kelby Brick, NAD Director of Law and Advocacy, said: "People with disabilities use communications technologies every day that were not even in existence at the time our nation's communications laws were last amended."
Although the 1996 Act contained disability provisions for access to telecommunications products and services, it was, Brick says, mainly limited to "those used with the public switched telephone network, not the Internet."
In his November 9, 2005 testimony, and in response to questions posed by Subcommittee Chair Fred Upton (R- MI), Dr. Bowe said that the disability community wants legislation sooner rather than later, saying that communications manufacturers and service providers have had ten years to become familiar with the accessibility needs of Americans with disabilities.
The House staff discussion draft would extend the same accessibility requirements to new Internet-enabled products and services.
A couple recent news items highlighted the attention the telecommunications industry is giving its deaf and hard of hearing customers.
The nation's largest Telecommunications Relay Services provider, Sprint, has announced that it is offering more choice and flexibility for the deaf and hard-of-hearing through enhancements to Sprint IP Relay and Sprint Video Relay Service.
Sprint IP Relay, an Internet relay service, has launched a more user-friendly layout, a shorter Web address and faster user connectivity. On November 1, Sprint launched two new Video Relay Service enhancements to support sign language users, Sprint VRS Voice Carry Over and Spanish VRS, and extended its VRS hours to 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Mike Ligas, director of Sprint Relay said the enhancements to Sprint IP Relay and Video Relay Services render Sprint Relay accessible to more deaf and hard-of-hearing people.
Sprint IP Relay is a free service that allows people who are deaf or hard of hearing to communicate with hearing individuals from any computer without having to use traditional bulky, cumbersome TTY equipment.
Sprint VRS VCO allows a deaf or hard-of-hearing user, who prefers to voice for themselves, to speak directly to their party while a video interpreter signs what the hearing person is saying. Through Spanish VRS, video interpreters can now translate sign language to spoken Spanish and vice versa. Operating hours for Spanish VRS are 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Central time, Monday through Friday.
Sprint VRS, now available any time day or night, enables users who use sign language to communicate via videoconferencing with a video interpreter through the Internet. The interpreter relays the signed conversation over a standard phone in real time to the hearing caller. By using sign language over the full-motion video, the sign language user can communicate in their natural language and convey facial expression and cues to ensure nothing gets lost in the translation. The sign language user needs a videophone with a television or a Web cam with a computer.
Also the National Association of the Deaf, joined by other disability organizations, called upon Congress to enact legislation mandating disability access to Internet-based products and services by the end of this Congress.
"The nation needs broadband, everywhere, now, and at affordable rates -- this is true for no one more than people with disabilities," NAD officials said.
Following up on testimony presented at last week's hearing before the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, given by NAD governmental affairs consultant Frank Bowe and delivered on behalf of 16 national, state and local organizations of, by, and for people with disabilities, Kelby Brick, NAD Director of Law and Advocacy, said: "People with disabilities use communications technologies every day that were not even in existence at the time our nation's communications laws were last amended."
Although the 1996 Act contained disability provisions for access to telecommunications products and services, it was, Brick says, mainly limited to "those used with the public switched telephone network, not the Internet."
In his November 9, 2005 testimony, and in response to questions posed by Subcommittee Chair Fred Upton (R- MI), Dr. Bowe said that the disability community wants legislation sooner rather than later, saying that communications manufacturers and service providers have had ten years to become familiar with the accessibility needs of Americans with disabilities.
The House staff discussion draft would extend the same accessibility requirements to new Internet-enabled products and services.