Why Do Deaf People Use Relay Services?

Relay services have been a very helpful invention for the Deaf Community. Deaf people used to have to rely on family, friends, and even neighbors to make necessary phone calls for them. There was a mandated nationwide system of telecommunication services accessible to the deaf in 1990 issued, thanks to the ADA. Relay services give deaf people the opportunity to communicate with people over the phone with technologies including text, voice, and video. Deaf and hard of hearing people are now able to communicate as equally as possible as hearing people because of these new inventions. These relay services also offer 9-1-1 emergency call centers. They are open 24/7 and are free to relay service users. Deaf people used to only have TTY’s, and they

Their job is to be able to communicate with deaf, hard of hearing, or speech disabled Americans, or even Americans without these disabilities. When a deaf person needs to initiate a phone call with a CA, they send a text of the number they want them to call via TTY, cell phone, or other devices capable of sending a message. Once the CA recieves that message, they make the phone call to that particular service or person. The CA then reads off what the message says via voice to the service or person, then messages back via text what the service or person says. This is not the only form of TRS, however. There are multiple forms of TRS such as speech to speech, non-english, voice carry over, etc. Another one commonly used by deaf people is Video Relay Service, or VRS. This is for those whose primary language is ASL. This operates very similarly to text to voice TRS services, but instead of the caller texting what they need to say, they say it in sign via video. It is much faster and more efficient than text to voice. It has been required since 2006 that any TRS service that provides VRS must operate 24/7 and they must answer phone calls they receive within a specific amount of time to ensure that the caller receives the deserved customer