IP Captioned Phone Service: Costs and Benefits
June 14, 2008 by Dr. S. A. Maclin · Leave a Comment
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Background
Telecommunications Relay Service (TRS) allows persons with hearing or speech disabilities to place and receive telephone calls. A communications assistant (CA) relays the call back and forth between the person with a hearing or speech disability and a voice telephone user. For example, a person with a hearing disability can communicate in text with the CA, while the CA communicates by voice with the other party to the call. The CA repeats in voice what the user has typed, and types to the TRS user what the voice telephone user has said.
There are several types of TRS that consumers can use depending on the nature of the disability and whether they have some hearing and can speak. TRS types include traditional TRS, which uses a text telephone or TTY device and a telephone line, Speech-to-Speech (STS), and Captioned Telephone Service, as well as forms of TRS that use the Internet, specifically Internet Protocol (IP) Relay, and Video Relay Service (VRS). IP Captioned Telephone Service is one of the newest forms of TRS. For a description of the various types of TRS, see FCC’s consumer fact sheet at www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/trs.html.
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