TTY Lesson

I had an unfortunate experience with a TTY call on Friday and it was mostly due to the person I was calling being unfamiliar with the a Relay assisted call, so if you will bear with me I would like to explain how it works!

Because I can't hear on the phone anymore (although hopefully that will change soon), I have to use my TTY and a service called Relay to make my phone calls. I am going to assume that no one knows what these things are so that I can educate a few people. A TTY is like a small typewriter that hooks to my phone line and instead of talking, I type into it. Relay is a service provided by most ( if not all) states and is for people who are deaf, hard of hearing or verbally impaired.

When I want to make a call, I turn on the TTY and type in a phone number for Relay Texas. An agent at Relay Texas answers the phone and asks me for the phone number I wish to call. The agent then dials the number and when a person answers the agent tells them, "you are recieving a relay call, have you ever recieved a relay call before?" If you tell them "No" then they will explain the service to you. You speak to the operator who types in your words, verbatim ( as well as anything else they hear in the background) and then the operator reads the TTY users response back to the hearing person recieving the call.

If you recieve a relay call, the correct way to respond is to simply ignore the agent/operator and just speak to the person. In other words, you should say "hello, how is it going?" not "tell her that I said hello, how is it going?" There are only a couple of things that you really need to do differently than a regular phone call, one is at the end of your phrase or question, when you are ready for the TTY user to respond, you should say "go ahead" and the operator will type in "GA" which tells me/TTY user that you are finished with whatever you were saying and I can respond. At the end of the phone call, you would say "bye bye go ahead or sign off" and that way I know the conversation is over on your part. I would reply "Bye SK" or if I had something else to say or ask could do so before signing off (SK)

This service is a real lifesaver for me and it gives me a lot more independence than I would have if I had to rely on others to make all my calls. I still rely on my husband quite a bit just because people sometimes freak out when they get a TTY call. The agents at relay are all bound by a confidentiality clause so it is no big deal that they are listening to your call. I would imagine most of them are not really paying that much attention to what is being said but rather making sure they type it correctly. I am reading this to my husband to get the hearing persons opinion and he said to share with you that if you are going to be saying a long phrase then you might want to pause just a second to let the agent catch up. Like anything else some agents are more experienced than others and some type better and faster than others. He also said to let you know that the TTY users phone number will show up if you have caller id so you will know who you are talking to.

Some people are just really uncomfortable using Relay, even my Mom does not like it, preferring that I send her e-mails. So sometimes I call her with relay to tell her to send me an email or to check her email because I need a response. Most people are patient and willing to work with me on TTY and I really appreciate their patience. It makes up for those who are rude and impatient with me because a TTY call takes longer.

It is possible to call relay TX and ask them to call me. You would just call 1-800-relay-vv ( this number may only work if you live in TX) and give them my number and then the process would be the same as if I called you. However, because I have two hearing people in my house and no one ever calls me with a tty I do not answer the phone anyway ( I let the answering machine pick up or someone else answer it). The best way to reach me personally is to call and leave a message on my home phone or call my cell phone number and I will call you back at the number you called from. I need to have caller id put on my home phone so I know who calls but if you call the cell phone then I have the number to call you back.

Thanks for reading this long blog and hopefully it will make it easier for you if you should ever recieve a TTY call. Hope you are all having a lovely weekend and make some time tomorrow to worship the Lord who makes all thing possible! Blessings!