natalyad

Context

I am severely deaf in both ears and wear one or two hearing aids to aid my hearing. I rely heavily on lipreading and cannot reliably use even a very amplified telephone for voice telephone calls.

I use a textphone, often called a Minicom via a 'relay' service run by BT called TextRelay previously known as TypeTalk.

Minicom 6000p

TextRelay calls

Connecting calls via a textphone is much slower than regular voice telephony as the user has to wait for TextRelay to connect an operator into the call before anything useful can happen. I only know what is typed on my screen so I don't hear what the caller sounds like and I don't always get all the information which is spoken because operators cannot type at verbatim speeds.

A textrelay call progress is also much slower as the operator has to type what the hearing person says and speak what the deaf person is typing. TextRelay calls have a 60% call rebate to account for this.

Incoming calls on a textphone

Dialing a textphone user is currently a pain, any caller who isn't themselves using a textphone has to use the 18002 prefix before my full number to connect via TextRelay. I can't tell which incoming calls are and are not connecting via TextRelay as BT do not use existing call flag technology to allow this. I also can't tell which calls are spam and which are just behind PBXes which block caller ID.

Problems storing or dialing the 18002 TextRelay prefix

Many organisations can't store this prefix with my number due to phone fields in databases being too short. Often staff in organisations can't even dial 18002 without getting error beeps where the call does not connect. I've given up fighting organisations to make them change their phone systems. Many people have never heard of this prefix and are frightened that it's a scam number or similar.

Bad experiences of accepting (but not receiving) incoming calls

In 2005 the DWP required me to accept a mandatory telephone call because I was on income support. I called them the week before to tell them about me being deaf, I explained TextRelay and that they needed to use the 18002 prefix and asked them to make sure they used this. The advisor was very helpful and promised to make a note and gave me her name. These days I would send this information in writing as well by recorded delivery.

Before the the call appointment time I checked my phoneline for incoming and outgoing calls. No call came in between 1pm and 5pm, so I phoned the DWP and waited for 30 minutes to speak to an advisor. The advisor who answered said I was recorded as "not answering" which was a sanctionable offense. I pointed out that no call had hit my phoneline and that I had flashing strobes and computers connected to the phone. I even blagged and said I would get BT to prove no call had hit my phoneline that day. The advisor insisted they had called 3 times and repeated my telephone number to me without the 18002 prefix.

At this point I asked to speak to a manager as evidently something had gone wrong at the DWP's end because dialing my number without 18002 would have generated an incoming phonecall - just one I couldn't have answered. The DWP would have got a (300 baud modem tone at their end which sounds like this). The manager eventually tracked down the notes about 18002 from my previous call but did not herself understand how it worked. She did thankfully fix the system so I wasn't blamed for this without me having to write a complaint.

This experience made me realise that organisations failing to use the prefix wasn't only stressful but it was dangerous and I would constantly have to explain 18002 and prove that I had not "not answered" the calls.

I haven't taken incoming calls from not-my-mum since.

I can't always use a textphone either...

Even being able to make outgoing textphone calls via relay can be difficult for me a lot of the time. My left hand has always been very limited in usability. In 2009 I suddenly developed problems in my better hand which despite surgery and 3 rounds of physio have never completely resolved. This means I spend more than 50% of my time having to limit how much I type and realtime typing like TextRelay or IMing my friends is the worst kind.

As of November 2013 I am a long way into a 4th round of physio and referral back to brilliant orthopaedic doc but it's a slow process and I may never get my previous level of typing back. This affects my social life as well as telephony as I find it hard to talk to my friends and have to type things like blogposts in short chunks. I am even using Dragon at work sometimes to reduce the strain on my hands.

...And I don't have anyone who can do phonecalls for me

I hate asking someone to do phonecalls for me, they always end up making decisions FOR me and disempowering me in the process, even if they're lovely people trying to help. This is because relaying calls is hard and is partly why interpreters get special advanced training in how to do it properly.

I don't actually have anyone who is good on the telephone. My current partner is HORRENDOUS on the phone; she isn't willing or able to do my phonecalls for me and I would hate the decisions she made.

As a legally competent adult I don't believe I should NEED a phoneline as I can use email and SMS perfectly well and sometimes I can use IM on my computer which has a better keyboard than my Textphone...

Sadly organisations like the DWP, HMRC and NHS are obsessed with phones and persistently ask me if someone will do phonecalls for me. My answer is always no!

It is an organisation's duty under s.20 of the Equality Act 2010 to make reasonable adjustments for my disability, not mine to adjust to their disabling systems!