Using a Videophone to Make Phone Calls

Recently, my friend, Stephen Hopson came to visit from Ohio.  Stephen runs Adversity University and is an inspirational speaker and life coach.  He watched in amazement how I accessed a conference call using my videophone and called my mother-in-law with a regular phone and the videophone.

Full disclosure here-- I work for Hands On, a company that has merged with i711 and IP Relay.  Together, all three companies offer a wide variety of ways that deaf and hard of hearing people can access phone calls.  Users can make phone calls using a videophone hooked up to a TV, a webcam on the computer and text relay on cell phones with instant messenging.

What this means is that the world has opened up for deaf and hard of hearing people to do business like never before.  Indeed, Stephen is using the videophone and webcam to consult with clients and book speaking engagements--something that was tedious with a TTY years before.  When Stephen obtained his webcam and videophone and used them with a regular phone, he was able to make voice calls to his parents and friends.  He excited shared his joy at this new-found ability to use the phone.

Here's what Stephen shared on his blog recently:

"

When I was a kid, I had to rely on my mother to make phone calls for me whenever I wanted to get together with a friend or go out on a date (how embarrassing for a gawky teenager that I was). Then came TTYs and the relay phone service. That’s where I could finally make calls on my own, relying on the relay operator to type back to me (via TTY) what the other party was saying. While this certainly gave me much desired independence, it’s been frustrating at times because either the operator couldn’t keep up with the conversation (i.e. couldn’t type fast enough) or there were technical glitches that ruined an otherwise important call.

Well, no more!

Thanks to the advance of technology, I now have the ability to make phone calls through the use of a webcam, allowing me to either see the party I’m communicating with or an operator who appears right on the screen, acting as an interpreter (combination of sign language and lip movements). Instead of waiting for the operator to finish typing the other person’s conversation, all of my telephone conversations are done in real time, with minimal delay. The intepreter/operator is often right at the heels of the other person’s words, a vast improvement over the old method.

As you can imagine, I’ve been going crazy calling family, friends, clients, subscribers and everyone else I can think of, excitedly telling them about this. It feels like I’ve just been released from the shackles of….. what’s the word…… (fill in the blanks).

For the first time since I started my professional speaking and life coaching services, I can now participate in multi-participant conference calls and conduct other important business on the phone. Thank you Sorenson, i711 and HOVRS for making this possible - you’ve literally changed my life!"

So if you are deaf or hard of hearing and want to learn more about how to use a videophone or webcam to make calls, feel free to contact me at:  kputz@hovrs.com.

Happy chatting!