TTY's, Relays, & Ringer Lights

The Deaf like to converse by phone, just like hearing people. But since they have hearing losses they cannot talk on the phone, or rather they cannot hear voices from the phone. For most deaf people, it is hard or impossible to hear on the phone. To go around that obstacle, TTY's, relays, and ringer lights have been invented.

TTY's are small keyboard and display devices. There are various types, but with most of them, a telephone is placed into a cradle on top and two people can type back and forth to each other. Each person can type on his or her keyboard, and both people can read from the small display what it being typed. (By the way, the name "TTY" comes from an old abbreviation for machines called "teletypes" or "tele-typewriters," which were the forerunners of today's modern TTY's.)

Ringer lights are lights that flash when the phone rings, so the deaf person knows when the phone is ringing.

Specially trained dogs can also alert a deaf person that the phone is ringing.

Most states today have relays operated by phone companies. A relay is used when a deaf person and hearing person want to talk to each other. They call a special phone number and an operator answers. The operator has a TTY machine. This operator will read to the hearing person what the deaf person is typing on the TTY, and will type back to the deaf person what the hearing person is saying. This enables people who do not have access to TTY's to converse by phone with deaf people who do.

Hearing and Hearing Loss |Causes of Deafness | Sign Language| Living With Deafness| About the Authors | Notes, Letters, and Posted Questions