For over 30 years, Telecommunications Relay Services have brought voice telephony communication to deaf consumers. This isn’t exactly a technology I’ve kept up with during that whole time, but as I look into it now, I see that the web has greatly expanded the service range from its original capabilities. The latest development is an application that supports Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch. This software from Purple is aptly named IP-Relay and you can see it in action in this YouTube video created by the company.
IP-Relay essentially places a regular phone call, with one exception — between the two callers is an operator that assists with the entire communications stream. The deaf caller types out their conversation, which the operator reads to the other party. In turn, the spoken responses are transcribed and typed for the deaf person to read on their iPhone, much like an instant messaging chat session. The app is free in the iTunes store and there’s no direct cost for the end user in the U.S. as these services are paid for from state or federal funds.
The software looks configurable for usability; font size, colors, and the special GA and SK usage can be modified. GA and SK are useful action abbreviations in this particular case — Go Ahead and Stop Keying. IP-Relay integrates your existing iPhone contacts and also maintains a recent calls log for fast redial. After reading up on the software and these services in general, I’m no longer going to assume that every iPhone owner I see can hear me. Shame on me for thinking otherwise up to now!
-
1 / 6ip-relay-dialer -
2 / 6ip-relay-main -
3 / 6ip-relay-settings -
4 / 6ip-relay-call-log -
5 / 6ip-relay-logo -
6 / 6ip-relay-thumb
Images courtesy of Purple Communications
Related research on GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):
{"source":"https:\/\/gigaom.com\/2010\/02\/24\/iphone-for-deaf\/wijax\/49e8740702c6da9341d50357217fb629","varname":"wijax_c4d65bf9825ac8b8316846941f2de906","title_element":"header","title_class":"widget-title","title_before":"%3Cheader%20class%3D%22widget-title%22%3E","title_after":"%3C%2Fheader%3E"}