Sounding Board

A voice to text telephone?

Enquiry: I am completely reliant on a cochlear for phone calls. I work in an office dealing with the public and this requires many phonecalls. As many people now use mobiles I cannot hear them properly (landlines are better). Is there any type of phone which converts speech to text that can be used in an office environment?

Reply: While voice recognition programmes are pretty well established for use in computers, it seems that there is not yet a phone available which provides this service. Technology is moving so quickly that no doubt such a thing will be available in the future. The best option at the moment is to use the Text Relay Service. In order to use this service you need a text phone such as the one in this link. Text phone. If you are making a phone call yourself, you need to dial 18001 and then the full phone number you are calling. This will automatically connect you to an operator when the phone is answered. The operator will explain to the listener that they are using the text relay service, she will then ask you to speak on the phone. When the person replies, the operator will type their response which you can then read. You can then speak back. If you want somebody else to call you, they need to dial 18002 before the full number and the same service will be available. You could give out business cards with this number on it.
There are a number of disadvantages to this system: it is considerably slower than normal conversation, there is no privacy because of the necessity for a third person, sometimes people hang up before the operator has a chance to explain what is going on. However, at the moment, this is the best service of this type on offer. If you want to find out more about this service here is the link: www.textrelay.org
It is no help but in the USA, there is a much quicker, slicker text relay service known as Cap Tel which was available in the UK for a short while closing at the end of 2007. This had many advantages but was very expensive. Ofcom has commissioned research to find out how telephone services for deaf people need updating. The report was produced in July 2009 and you can read it here: Voice Telephony Services for Deaf People report 01/07/2009 You may be interested to read an article at www.deaf4life.co.uk which talks about this issue and the need to ensure that services improve. An article from The Guardian on this subject may also be of interest.

Posted on February 23, 2010 17:23