Many caregivers are caring for loved ones
who have developed hearing loss over the
years. Seniors often have trouble
understanding others speaking to them over
the telephone. Increasingly, they “pretend”
to understand what is being said, ask the
person to “speak up” or request the
information be repeated over and over.
They can find it increasingly difficult to
understand instructions or directions,
recognize confirmation numbers for products
or services, and most important, communicate
with emergency operators when necessary.
Today, new more accessible telephone
products and services, including hearing aid
compatible phones, are becoming more widely
available. In the last 20 years, a wide
range of voice, text, and video relay
services and technologies have been
developed that enable consumer choice of
language and mode of communication to access
the telephone network.
Captioned telephone technology is one of
these new technologies that are assisting
people who have retained some of their
hearing to listen to the actual voice of the
person on the telephone while reading the
text of the conversation they are having.
How Captioned Telephones Work
Captioned telephones are is similar to
captioned television, where spoken words
appear as written text for viewers to read.
The captioned telephone looks and works like
any traditional phone, with callers talking
and listening to each other, but with one
significant difference: written captions are
quickly delivered for every phone call. The
captions are displayed on the phone’s
built-in screen so the user can read the
words while listening to the voice of the
other party. If the captioned telephone user
has difficulty hearing what the caller says
or understanding the words, he or she can
read the captions for clarification.
Captioned telephone phone users place a
call in the same way as dialing a
traditional phone. As they dial, the
captioned telephone automatically connects
to a captioning service. When the other
party answers, the captioned telephone user
hears everything that they say, just like a
traditional call.
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