Telecommunication Resources for People with Disabilities: New Horizons Un-Limited

Telecommunication

National

AT&T Telecommunications Relay Services (TRS) allows anyone who may have a hearing or speech loss to communicate with almost anyone in the world on the phone! Relay is for anyone who is deaf, hard-of-hearing, late-deafened, or speech disabled, or family, friends or people who wish to communicate with someone who uses a TTY/TDD or standard telephone to communicate. Your message is relayed by a Communications Assistant (CA), word for word, to the hearing person on the other end of the line. The CA types what the hearing person has said back to the TTY user. By law, each conversation is handled with the strictest confidentiality. There is no additional charge to access AT&T Relay Services.

Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Inc. (TDI) promotes equal access for deaf, hard of hearing, and deaf-blind in media and telecommunications. TDI was established in 1968 originally to promote further distribution of TTYs in the deaf community and to publish an annual national directory of TTY numbers. Today, it is an active national advocacy organization focusing its energies and resources to address equal access issues in telecommunications and media for four constituencies in deafness and hearing loss, specifically people who are deaf, hard-of-hearing, late-deafened, or deaf-blind. For more information, contact TDI at 8630 Fenton Street, Suite 121, Silver Spring, MD 20910, or Phone TTY: 301-589-3006, FAX: 301-589-3797, Voice: 301-589-3786, Video: 301-563-9112, or send e-mail to: info@TDIforAccess.org

Telecommunications Relay Service is a pdf by the Federal Communications Commission · Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau that explains the various types of Telecommunications available. Telecommunications Relay Service is a telephone service that allows persons with hearing or speech disabilities to place and receive telephone calls. TRS is available in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. territories for local and/or long-distance calls. TRS providers ( generally telephone companies ) are compensated for the costs of providing TRS from either a state or a federal fund. There is no cost to the TRS user.