a service that is designed to allow a person whose hearing loss prevents him or her from using the telephone to talk to a hearing person who requires no special equipment, via a third party
An operator who helps TTY users communicate via telephone to non-TTY users by listening to the auditory signal and typing out the words or reading the TTY user's words and relaying them to the non-TTY user.
Enables users who have hearing or speech disabilities to place calls to and receive calls from hearing people. There are several variations. Most commonly, typed TTY messages are transmitted to a Communication Assistant who voices them to hearing persons. Hearing persons' messages are voiced to the Communication Assistant who relays them to the TTY printout or display. TTY users may also choose to speak for themselves but get responses via TTY ("Voice Carryover"), or listen for themselves but send responses via TTY ("Hearing Carryover"). Finally, speech relay services may also be used by customers with speech impairments who do not have a TTY. In this case, the Communication Assistant simply re-voices what the person with a speech impairment says.
A third-party service (usually free) that allows a hearing person without a TTY/TDD device to communicate over the telephone with a person who has a hearing impairment. The system also allows a person with a hearing impairment who has a TTY/TDD to communicate in voice through a third party, with a hearing person or business.