Equivalent Telecommunications Access on Mobile Devices

Abstract

Currently, Deaf and hard of hearing (D/HH) callers using mobile phones cannot place a video or captioned based call to a Telecommunication Relay Services (TRS) Communication Assistant (CA) using the carrier assigned mobile phone number. D/HH callers need to use accessible hardware (video phones, captioned telephones, Teletypewriter, TTY) or download mobile applications to place or receive calls. D/HH callers’ generalized and emergency contact information in captioned/video applications is not linked to the built-in directory. Through our research and development work, we propose a concept to allow D/HH callers to have the option to make captioned and video calls through mobile device native dialer systems without the need to download applications. This proposed concept includes the all-in-one solution of Video Relay Services (VRS), 3-Party Video Calls, Voice-to-Text Captioning, and NextGen 911 built into the dialer systems. This demonstration introduces a concept that would make placing and receiving calls through TRS more native-like to that of auditory telephone users.