Free Captioned Telephone Has People Talking
By Girard, Anne; Hearing Loss Magazine, Vol. 30, No. 2, pp. 32-34Publication Date: March/April 2009
Article describes a captioned telephone service for people with mild to significant hearing loss. CapTel provides written captions of what an outside caller is saying for the CapTel user to read; the captions are displayed on a specially designed screen that is featured on a landline analog telephone. A web-based option, Web CapTel, enables individuals to place or receive captioned calls anywhere they have access to a standard or mobile phone and a high-speed Internet connection. Web CapTel does not require the purchase of special equipment or software and, because the service is provided through the Internet, long-distance charges and other standard telephone service fees do not apply. To make or receive calls, the user logs on to a Web CapTel provider website and is connected through a Captioning Assistant (CA), who re-voices the outside caller’s words. The re-voiced words are transformed via Voice Recognition into sounds sent over the Internet and displayed on the Web CapTel user’s computer screen. More information can be found at Web CapTel provider websites such as http://www.hamiltonwebcaptel.com.
Assistive Products Discussed: CAPTEL TELEPHONE
CAPTEL USB
Published by: Hearing Loss Association of America (formerly Self Help for Hard of Hearing People) (Website:http://www.hearingloss.org)
