Even though I am not a fan of phone relay services and prefer emailing or texting or instant messaging to communicate to people directly, I appreciate the ability to make phone calls via any type of those services that I wrote about in my last post. However, I got an email message from Sorenson that made me and many others get upset because that organization decided to discontinue their text relay services (SIP Relay) while keeping Video Relay Services (VRS).
Posts published in “Technology”
“…This is a relay operator X. Have you received a relay call before?” When people not familiar with deafness hears those words, they often hang up thinking it is telemarketing. It is not – phone relay services is what deaf/hoh people use to communicate with hearing parties.
When looking at people using hearing devices (hearing aids and cochlear implants), don’t assume that they can hear and understand everything. It’s not like wearing eyeglasses that gives you 20/20 vision – even eyeglasses are not beneficial to people who are blind or have some severe eye sight problems.