Sprint Continues to Provide Relay Services to the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Florida

Since 2001 Sprint has offered assistive communications services to individuals within Florida who are deaf or hard of hearing or have a speech disability. They have recently announced that this service will continue through a new three-year contract awarded by the state of Florida.

Sprint delivers approximately 750,000 minutes of assistive communications services each month in Florida and through the new contract, effective June 1, a one-year trial of Relay Conference Captioning (RCC) will be available.

RCC, developed by Caption Colorado, is a free service that combines real-time captioning and standard relay service to provide relay conference captioning calls for deaf and hard of hearing individuals. By using an Internet Text Streaming platform supported by skilled captioners, RCC provides accurate real-time captioned text for any live conference call.

In June 2005, Sprint will open a new relay service center in Jacksonville, which will be dedicated to support Sprint Relay(SM) traffic in the state. The new center will employ approximately 160 individuals who will serve as communication assistants, the intermediary for communications between a deaf user and a hearing party. Sprint also will employ an account manager who will be dedicated to serving and educating the Florida community about relay services.

“Assisting those who are deaf and hard of hearing to communicate effectively with family and friends and for business purposes through a variety of options is important to Sprint,” said Mike Ligas, region vice president - Sprint Relay. “We’ve enjoyed a long relationship with the state of Florida and are now excited to bring additional services and new jobs to the community.”

Since March 2004, CapTel Relay Service (Captioned Telephone), developed by Ultratec, Inc., has been available for those who are hard of hearing or have experienced hearing loss later in life or deaf individuals with good vocalization skills. CapTel allows nearly simultaneous voice and text captioning via a special, CapTel-equipped phone using a standard telephone line. The captions are displayed on the CapTel phone’s built-in screen so the user can read the words while listening to the other party’s voice.

Sprint’s traditional relay service (TRS) is accessible throughout Florida by dialing 711 or one of several toll-free numbers. Florida citizens who are deaf, hard of hearing or deaf-blind or have a speech disability will continue to receive seamless communication with hearing persons on the phone through TRS, which involves a relay operator serving as an intermediary for phone calls between a deaf user and a hearing party. The TRS operator speaks words typed by a deaf user on a text telephone (TTY) or via the Internet and relays the hearing person’s spoken response by typing back to the deaf user.

Sprint also offers Video Relay Service (VRS), which uses a similar process but enables the deaf user to communicate in American Sign Language through a video interpreter via a computer or television monitor equipped with a Web camera or videophone instead of typing. This allows for a much more natural- sounding conversation with the hearing party. Floridians may access VRS through http://www.sprintrelay.com/ , or with a D-Link videophone (used with television monitors) by entering the IP address ’sprintvrs.tv’. This service is currently funded by the Interstate TRS fund.

Source – PR Newswire