December 1997

What You Say?

How to Make Sure That What You Type is What They Say,
and What You Read is What They Said:
News from the Wonderful World of Communication via Relay Operators

Mitch Travers
Greenbelt, MD

I would like to touch on the subject of whether or not a TTY user of relay services can assume that the information relayed to his or her TTY by the relay operator is 100% accurate. Oftentimes, erroneous information may appear on the TTY but not be readily discernible as such. For example, the voice user may say "one o' clock in the afternoon" and the TTY user may see on his or her TTY "11 p.m." I am sure each one of us can think of many different examples of having received incorrect information during relay calls.

I offer the perspective that the responsibility for the accuracy and "clarity" of information in telephone conversations belong to the end parties of the telephone conversation. The operative principle is that "Control Belongs to the Person Making and Receiving the Telephone Call." This principle reflects the reality of the way things are when two hearing people have a telephone conversation. This principle is also applicable when one of the telephone party is hearing and the other is deaf or hard of hearing. The presence of a "third party," like the Maryland Relay, does not alter this principle.

As an example, let's use the situation where the TTY user is receiving information. In this case, the responsibility for ensuring that the information received belongs to the TTY user. What the TTY user can do when receiving cost information on the telephone is to repeat that cost back to the hearing party and ask if that cost information is correct. Likewise when receiving an address, the TTY user can repeat back to the hearing party that address and ask for confirmation that it is correct. In other words, the TTY user has "control" and is able to act accordingly to verify and ensure that "critical" information received is "accurate" and "clear." The Relay Operator has no role in this regard.

The issue of whether Relay Operators are sufficiently skilled and are performing at an acceptable level of quality is unrelated to the question of whose responsibility it is to ensure that accurate and clear information is received during telephone calls. Rather, the issue of operator skill is an issue pertaining to the capability of processing "relay" calls, not of ensuring the veracity of the information received during telephone conversations.

Additionally, the principle that "Control Belongs to the Person Making and Receiving the Telephone Call" is equally applicable for relay situations in which there a recording or an automated voice response system is on one end of the telephone call. Let me illustrate how I verify information when the party I am receiving it from is a recording or automated response system.

After the relay operator has initially relayed the recording or automated response, I ask the relay operator to go back to the beginning and relay it again (sometimes redialing, if necessary). Sometimes, I ask the relay operator to relay only certain parts again, such as the name of the of the person or company, the telephone number, the price. On occasion, I hang up and redial the Relay Center to get a different Relay Operator (I find this is much faster than requesting a new operator during the same call) so that I can obtain an "independent" verification of the information from the recording/automated response system. Of course, I do this mostly when the nature of the information is "critical" to me.

Comments may be sent to:
etrsf@48i.com, or go to
http://www.48i.com

Home

Newsletter

Calendar

Previous

Index

Next

Contact