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'smodern 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.
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