Protest in Canada

Demonstrations are planned this Friday (Jan 13) in Canada over plans to shut down a government video relay phone service. The service has been active for a year and a half on a trial basis in British Columbia and Alberta, but that comes to an end next weekened (Jan 15). The CRTC, which governs the country’s telephone industry, used several million dollars to fund the trial, employing some 150 sign interpreters.

The Android VPhone

An inexpensive video-chatting phone may be out in just weeks. The Android VPhone comes from a small, new wireless firm called Saygus. It's being processed through Verizon's Open Development Initiative and it may be out of Verizon's labs very soon. While the company is enthusiastic about the phone's use in the Deaf Community, it hasn't made the device available for review by industry experts. More information here.

911 Calls

Can you make emergency calls through IP Relay or Video Relay Service? In this ASL video, the FCC offers an answer.

Dial Arounds

Can "dial around" providers still be used with VRS and IP calls, dispite the changes made by the FCC? The agency offers an answer in this ASL video.

Why the Video # Change

Here is a ASL video explaining why the FCC is requiring a 10-digit number in order to make non-emergency IP Relay or Video Relay Service (VRS) calls.

Registering for a Video #

In this ASL video, the FCC explains how the registration process to get a 10-digit number in order to make non-emergency IP Relay or Video Relay Service (VRS) calls.

Why Video # Requirement

In this ASL video, the FCC explains why the agency is requiring a local 10-digit number in order to make non-emergency IP Relay or Video Relay Service (VRS) calls. These new rules goes into effect today.

How to Get a Video #

In this ASL video, the FCC explains how to get a 10-digit number in order to make non-emergency IP Relay or Video Relay Service (VRS) calls.

New Videophone Rules

Here's an FCC-produced video in ASL about new rules requiring a local 10-digit number in order to make non-emergency IP Relay or Video Relay Service (VRS) calls. These new rules goes into effect today.

Videophones for Job Career Centers

Deaf jobseekers in Alabama now have a quicker way to meet with a career counselor at the state’s Career Services Centers. The Alabama Department of Rehabilitation Services has bought a videophone system that connects jobseekers at its ten career centers across the state to on-call sign language interpreters. The equipment brings the interpreter into the conversation with the career counselor and the job seeker without having to arrange a face-to-face meeting. The Department has trained its eight interprets and other employees at the career center on how to use the $34,000 system.

Verizon Expands Videophone Service

Verizon is making itself available to more customers through videophone. The service is already available in Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington, D.C., Massachusetts, New York and Rhode Island. Now you can add to that list Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The Verizon Center for Customers with Disabilities allows people to use a videophone or Web camera to connect to a company representative who is proficient in using American Sign Language.

Deaf Business Gets Major Client

Viable just picked up a big client. The Department of Commerce has selected Viable’s VPAD+ as the videophone of choice for its deaf and hard of hearing employees. The phone was also picked last week for the Department of Defense by the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Taskforce. The VPAD+ is a lightweight, standalone VOIP videophone with a touchscreen monitor. It works with both WiFi and Bluetooth. Viable is a deaf-owned and deaf-operated provider of video relay services (VRS) located in Rockville, Maryland.

New Phones for Gallaudet

The student academic center at Gallaudet University will open four videophone booths with free video relay service tomorrow. The equipment comes from relay service provider Sorenson Communications. The new videophones come with an enhanced 911 feature that allows an emergency dispatcher to verify the caller's address through the 10-digit phone number when the caller dials 911. That will also help VRS users receive phone calls. Instead of dialing two numbers, one for the relay operator and one for the person they are trying to call, now a caller can reach a VRS user directly, using the 10-digit phone number. An interpreter will answer the call and provide assistance to both the caller and the receiver.

Getting to Know… Videophones

Callers see an interpreter on their TV screen and sign a message to the interpreter, who then contacts the hearing recipient on a standard phone line and relays the conversation between the two parties.

Video Relay Services (or VRS) help the deaf to call hearing people. The customer dials a toll-free number and sees a picture of an interpreter on a home television screen. The operator contacts the desired hearing person and then serves as a go-between the two parties, signing to the deaf person and speaking to the hearing person, just as they would do in person. The service is free to the deaf because the cost is underwritten by the universal access surcharge that telephone users pay.

When video relay began in January 2002 only about 7200 minutes where used each month. That rose to more than 3 million minutes last year, according to the Federal Communications Commission.

Large Companies offering Video Relay Service: Sprint, AT&T, Verizon/MCI, Hamilton and Sorenson

Mentoring Program

Sorenson Communication is offering a new mentoring program that will give interpreters a change to improve their skill with one-on-one help from ASL experts. The Language Mentor Program provides 16-weeks of training for Video Relay and will help to prepare interpreters for national certification. The sessions are free for interpreters who work in Sorenson’s VRS system and can be taken in the home through the company’s videophones.

The Library of Congress

Videophones have been placed in the Library of Congress in Washington, making the Library of Congress one of the first federal agencies to set up a videophone network agency-wide for the benefit of staff members who are deaf or hard-of-hearing. There are 20 deaf staff members who work in a variety of positions throughout the library.

Video Relay Gets Simplified

In order to receive telephone calls through Sorenson Communications video sign language interpreter services, users have had to give out two numbers. One for the call center (in order to connect to an interpreter so that the caller can see the interpreter's sign language on a video screen) and another phone number for the person being called. But not anymore. The company is now making it possible for deaf customers to give out just one number. All three parties will be connected automatically. This also means a deaf person calling another no longer has to go through a call center to be connected through a video screen.

Banking for Deaf

A bank in Austin is making video conferencing available, so deaf customers will have interpreters available to them. It’s only available at the downtown headquarters of Frost Bank in conjunction with San Antonio’s Deaf Link. The link is secure and encrypted. Senior vice president of consumer sales, Patti Bliss, is heading up the project. Her son is deaf.

Airport Gets Video Phone

Colorado’s Aspen-Pitkin County Airport is adding a public-access videophone next month in the baggage claim area. Children visiting the Aspen Camp for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing will be able to contact family members when they arrive in Aspen or notify them of flight delays. Miami-based CSD is charging $7,000 for the phone.

Library of Congress

Videophones are being installed in the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. Sorenson Communications has been given the green light to add 16 units. That makes the Library of Congress one of the first federal agencies to set up a videophone network agency-wide for the benefit of staff members who are deaf or hard-of-hearing. There are 20 deaf staff members who work in a variety of positions throughout the library.