Somewhat Silent

In the UK we call TTYs (see google’s definition of tty ) textphones or minicoms. Minicom is a big manufacturer of textphones so ‘hoover’ (aka vacuum cleaner) syndrome has kicked in. I have a Minicom 600P which my dad rescued from a skip at work, it had a bent RJ11 port and uses the obscure RJ11 configuration but otherwise worked fine. You can see it at http://www.deafequipment.co.uk/store/viewProduct.do?id=1388 . Just look at how much that costs to buy!!!

There is one relay service in the UK run by BT (historically British Telecom) http://www.bt.com and RNID (Royal National Institute for the Deaf) http://www.rnid.org.uk . The relay service receives financial contributions from other telecomms providers and can be used from their networks but usually with more work-arounds than with BT. The relay service is known colloquially as ‘typetalk’ http://www.typetalk.org and I think was historically called that until Marketing and Branding happened. As I understand it ‘TypeTalk’ is the name of the ‘organisation’ which runs the ‘BT TextDirect’ service but their website uses the words without clear definition. Oh and to add to confusion BT has an SMS to voice service called ‘BT Text’ http://www.bt.com/bttext .

Using typetalk is relatively easy, using a textphone, or a terminal+modem with correct config you dial 18001 in front of the number that you wish to dial. If you are dialling another textphone then dialling 180015 goes through their system and means you get a 60% call rebate. This doesn’t always work when calling minicom numbers which is sometimes annoying cos I’m a cheapskate.

Many businesses publish ‘Minicom’ rather than ‘textphone’ numbers so the interchangability of terms is widespread. One would hope that if an organisation published a textphone number that they would answer the calls - but sadly that isn’t the case. I would estimate that 75% of organisations with a published number don’t use it properly. Sometimes they have a computer answering it which confuses my textphone something chronic and results in garbage spewing at me. I will usually try the minicom number first and expect it to ring out, I will then switch to the standard numbers using typetalk.

Some organisations are beginning to specifically tell deaf people to use typetalk instead of publishing a minicom number - this is not a bad idea in my view. My friend works for the Inland Revenue (taxman) and she asked her colleagues what ‘typetalk’ numbers were. They explained and showed her the ‘typetalk machine’ which no one could remember how to use. Apparently no one had called it in over 6 years. I know from experience that most hearing textphone users don’t know what they are doing and type painfully slowly. I find that incompetant textphone users garble everything and the call ends up being very confusing on both sides.

In the UK we have problems with organisations using recorded messages and automated diallers to ’spam’ us on our landlines/mobiles/faxes/etc. Individuals and organisations can globally opt-out of unsolicited calls (faxes, mobile calls, snailmail and email) using the Telephone Preference Service. After 28 days it becomes unlawful for any organisation to send you unsolicited spam and they can be fined £5,000 for every breech. Organisations have to use the CTPS (corporate telephone preference service) which is available on the same site http://www.tps-online.org.uk . Many people don’t know this, so I try and educate them at every opportunity.

When a person answers a call from someone using typetalk they hear a recorded female voice saying Welcome to BT TextDirect please hold for connection followed by Please Wait, Please Wait. The ‘please wait’ will repeat until an operator is available to take the call. Nowhere in the recorded spiel are the words ‘deaf’ ‘relay’ or ‘typetalk’ used. All the hearing people I know understand the words ‘typetalk’ and ‘relay’ but not ‘textdirect’.

Often when the person answers the phone and hears a recorded voice they hang up instinctively because of spam calls. Even if they don’t hang up immediately they assume it is BT spamming them (which as network provider they are legally allowed to do) so hang up after the spiel and before an operator connects. Very few people actually understand what ‘textdirect’ is, and that’s usually because they’ve been told, or they’ve had a typetalk call before.

About 25% of the time I find people repeatedly hang up on typetalk calls. If they hang up after the operator has connected I get a No one on the line message and usually the operator will offer to redial and stress that it is a deaf person on the line. This is the best outcome because once I have an operator they stay on the line till the call ends. They can usually be persuaded to say “This is a deaf person, a customer!” or similar to get the attention of the person I’m trying to call.

Unfortunately people who hang up usually do it too quickly for typetalk’s computers to give me an operator so I get a dead line and a 5 pence call charge (about $0.10 US). I can choose to keep redialling at 5 pence a go, or I can pay national-call rates (about $0.15 per minute minumum) for the call duration to use the old-fashioned service where I get an operator to dial out for me. I don’t like having to do this because it can increase the cost of the call by up to four or five time as I lose my 60% typetalk rebate AND pay national-rate call rates. For comparison, a local call during the day would cost about $0.10 a minute, in the evening/weekend it’d be about $0.02 a minute. National-rate calls also doesn’t come out of my landline ‘free minutes’ which I don’t normally use up. If a friendly hearing person is around I am often lazy and get them to ring up the person I want to call and shout at them for not taking my call.

Once the call is answered the problems are usually over, however some places will refuse to take typetalk calls because they take longer to handle than standard voice calls, but I think this is increasingly rare. Callcentre workers sometimes don’t know if they are permitted to take typetalk calls, but a request for them to check with their manager and in very rare cases the words “disability discrimination act” to the manager sorts that out very quickly. I find that callcentre people will be extra patient and helpful as they can’t possibly stick to their max-call-length things and I hope they get allowences for ’special circumstances’ rather than penalised for not making targets. I really ought to ask callcentre people what the score is on that one.

Banks and similar will sometimes refuse to use typetalk claiming that the ‘operator’ is not the ‘account holder’ this usually requires an explanation of the operator’s role and again those magic words “disability discrimination act”. They sometimes still refuse citing their ‘minicom number’ but as they are rarely answered the deaf person has a good case for discrimination either way. It’s been a number of years since I knew of any UK deaf people having to write or complain to the branch manager about access to phone banking. Internet banking helps a great deal in this - yay for Internet banking.

BT, RNID and TypeTalk (the organisation) are very aware of the problems I outline in the above. A friend of mine worked for a (D)eaf charity and discussed these issues with them directly. They have decided that the spiel isn’t very well worded, but they refuse to change it. I accept that there’s politics involved, but I believe the spiel should contain the words ‘deaf’ in it somewhere. They seem very resistant to listening to feedback or keeping up with the times. They are known to consult with the deaf community and ignore a lot of important points

As well as the issues in making outgoing calls via typetalk, there are the issues of receiving incoming calls. To ensure a call comes via typetalk the dialler has to use the prefix 18002 before the FULL telephone number. Many organisations can’t put this into their system as the database field for phone number doesn’t let them. There is NO way to automatically divert all incoming calls via typetalk, nor is the flagging system which could be utilised for identifying typetalk/nontypetalk calls implemented properly. There is a byte of data within the callerID frameset which can be flagged as ‘voice’ ‘fax’ and a few other things. There is also a number dialled field which could have the typetalk prefix put in it as typetalk does pass through callerID data. There features are rarely used, but the capability is there.

Normally when I receive a call which isn’t a known person who I will talk to by voice (my mum) or an UNKNOWN/WITHHELD number then I will answer with the textphone. If the person on the other end isn’t using typetalk then they will hear the 300bps squeals of the textphone which sound a bit like a fax. They often hang up before I realise my “Hello GA” is going nowhere so hitting the audio message “Please use a textphone” button is useless. These callers rarely redial as they think it’s a fax line.

If I answer a typetalk call in voice then an operator will kick in and tell me it’s a typetalk call for $Name and I can choose whether to speak or use the textphone. I don’t do this because if people hear me speak they don’t believe I am deaf and get annoying about the typetalk business. I could use two numbers for the same line one for typetalk incoming and one for voice incoming, but I figure that the main issue is with people being unable to remember the 18002 prefix and not with the differentiating between voice and textphone. Oh for an autodivert via typetalk feature - kim uses her mobile for all voice and hates phones almost as much as I do .

So, my questions to you guys at somewhatsilent.com are:

• Do you guys in the USA/elsewhere have the same problems or different ones?
• Can you automatically divert all calls to a textphone to a set number? If so how and with what relay service?
• How do you get hearing people to call you via a relay - is there a prefix and is it sensible?
• If you have a prefix how do you give your phonenumber to organisations without them being unable to store it correctly?
• Do you know your system works exactly (especially you Americans!) - The more technical the better. I’m very keen to know as I know very little other than the US/Canadia? appears to use the same basic protocols and technology as the UK. In the US you guys also have that nifty web interface to some relay services which I would kill for - Nigerians or no Nigerians
• How many of you actually use textphones and such like? If you don’t use textphones (TTYs) then what do you use and why?

Disclaimer: My explanation of TTY and phone stuff applies to England, Scotland and Wales and probably N.Ireland. I have NO idea about S.Ireland, Lette do you know? How about Europe?