natalyad | Entries tagged with telephony

Four main modes for using a relay service.

I have explained the basics of how textphones and relay works including calling-out info in my post Deaf and speech impaired people's access to telephones which you should read before this post.

This post has been edited to reflect changes since 2014 with the introduction of BT's Next Generation Text-Relay, known as NGT but probably needs restructuring entirely to make more sense.

This post explains a little bit more about the roles the caller, relay operator and recipient make in three different types of call using relay.
Textphone to Telephone
Voice Carry Over (VCO)
Hearing Carry Over (HCO)
Textphone to Textphone via TextRelay

1. Textphone to Telephone via TextRelay

This is one of the most common ways of using a relay service with the relay operator typing for the textphone user and speaking for the telephone user.

1. The textphone user types their words out on a textphone which are read by the relay operator to the telephone user.
2. The telephone user hears the relay operator speaking on their phone handset and once it is their turn to speak speaks their reply back to the relay operator.
3. Relay operator types out the telephone user's spoken reply as best as they can (but they aren't verbatim typists) which appears as text on the textphone user's screen.

Each person has to say Go Ahead or "over" or type GA (GA means go ahead) to end their turn and allow the other person to speak or type. Calls are ended with SK SK which means "stop keying" from telegraphy. There are other shortcodes in varying levels of use e.g Plz, thx.

Since the introduction of NGT Lite in 2014 most computers running Windows, MacOS, or linux, or tablets and smartphones running iOS or Android can act like a textphone.

Historically hardware textphone users could not access the audio of the call. Since NGT was introduced the user may now be able to access the audio during the call. The telephone users still cannot see the typed words.

2. Voice Carry Over (VCO)

Voice carry over (VCO) mode is usually used by people who cannot hear but wish to speak for themselves. This requires a textphone which has a handset like one of the ones below or NGT-Lite software.

Uniphone user using the textphone in voice carry over mode

Uniphone user using the textphone in voice carry over mode

Screenphone user using textphone in voice carry over mode

The first image shows a woman using a Uniphone branded textphone holding the handset in the usual way but reading the relayed text from the screen.

The second image shows a woman using a Screenphone which does not have a keyboard but has a larger screen. The close up zoom in of the screen shows the words "Hello Geoff, how are you today".

The textphone user speaks (voices) for themselves into their textphone or telephone handset. The telephone user can hear the textphone user speaking as usual but cannot just reply instantly as usual. When the textphone user has finished speaking they have to let the operator know they've finished by saying Go Ahead. This is an improvement on the old-textphone-system where a button had to be pressed with a 1-2 second 'change over time'.

When the telephone user has finished speaking they say "Go ahead" or "over" and the relay operator will let the deaf person know they can now speak again.

Historically textphone users could not access the audio of the call, but that has now changed with NGT. NGT was designed with the intention of encouraging more people to use voice carry over mode although I am not sure this has happened in practice.

3. Hearing Carry Over

Hearing Carry Over (HCO) is usually used by people who cannot or do not wish to speak but can hear what is said. Like with voice carry over this requires a textphone with a handset or NGT Lite.

The textphone user types what they wish to say and the relay operator speaks this to the telephone user. When the textphone user has finished typing they type GA so the operator knows to tell the other person they can speak and be heard by the speech impaired caller. When the telephone user has finished speaking they say "go ahead" or "over" and the textphone user will know it is their turn to type again.

NGT has eliminated the 1-2 second mode switching.

4. Textphone to Textphone (with and without relay)

The call connects with each textphone connecting by BT Text Direct (service provider of TextRelay)'s servers.

These days deaf people tend not to use textphone to textphone to communicate with one another as it has been superseded by SMS, text and video chat of various kinds etc.

The main reasons people will use this mode are to get the 60% call rebate; get clearer call progress messages and if their textphone isn't compatible with the other person's (TextRelay eliminates this issue).

I've seen a lot of people confused by Next Generation Text Relay (referred to as NGTR from now on) so I will try and simplfy info and cite my sources at the end.

I will assume deaf and hearing users for simplicity and likely common users. I am aware this will affect users with speech impairments and deafblind users.

OfCom's BSL translation of the NGTR approval.

If you don't know about existing TextRelay phone services for deaf and speech impaired people

I recommend you read my other blogposts on TextRelay (formerly TypeTalk).

Deaf and speech impaired people's access to telephones which outlines what a textphone is and UK's TextRelay.

Receiving an incoming call from a textphone user via TextRelay explaining incoming TextRelay calls.

Four main modes for using a relay service covering a lot more detail about the variety of options.

Next Generation Text Relay - NGTR will provide the following improvements to pre 2014 TextRelay services:

1) Allows the deaf person to use their regular PC (windows, mac, linux), tablet or smartphone device (Android, Apple's iOS) or Braille equipment to to connect to NGTR. This means no more expensive custom textphone/minicom hardware and no more needing an analogue telephone line.

[edit: Someone has pointed out to me that there doesn't seem to be info on how to be billed if you don't use a telecoms provider. I am looking into this as I couldn't see the answer in the OfCom documents. I am worried this might mean we need 'a phoneline' either mobile or landline or link in with a VOIP provider which is hassle and unfuture proof.]

2) Allows us to drop the 18002 dialing prefix that had to be dialled before the deaf person's usual telephone number. This can now be handled via a "TextNumber" which is basically a fake telephone number which automatically routes incoming calls via NGTR before connecting the call to the deaf user. The deaf user will need to register a TextNumber and give it out to people. No more organisations claiming they can't dial or store 18002. Users can still use and dial via 18002 if they wish to.

3) Allows both users to be able to speak and hear one another as well as having relaying of various parts of the call. This means deaf users with residual hearing can hear what is spoken as well as having relaying, or speak for themselves VCO style more naturally while having an op to help relay if there are some words which aren't easy to understand. I am not sure how this will work at implementation, if we'll need a modem/landline or if we can connect via VOIP, suspect it's one of those things we won't know till NGTR launches.

Official (initial) launch date for NGTR is 18th April 2014, but it's all gone a bit quiet, so we don't know if this means there will be a slight delay or not.

Questions deaf and hearing people have asked me

How will deaf and hearing NGTR users get the NGTR apps?
The windows/mac/linux apps will be downloadable from the NGTS website. The Android Apps will be in the app store and the iOS (Apple) apps will be from the Apple app store. The Apple apps may be slightly delayed due to Apple's rigorous approval systems.

The apps should all be free. It is also possible that once the NGTR goes live that other organisations may write apps or integrate NGTR functionality into their own apps as the standards should all be open and coherent to telecoms-techies.

How will a deaf person make a call with NGTR
The 18001 prefix will remain for deaf people. Deaf people dial 18001 plus the person's usual number on our smartphones, the 18001 should trigger the app on a smartphone and it will connect to relay and we should be able to handle calls much like we do at present, just on a wider range of devices. I presume the same from the desktop apps but don't know how the phone connection works just yet.

We will be able to dial any number we want after the 18001 just like we have always done, we don't need any pre-registration once we have the apps.

How will a hearing person make a call to a deaf person with NGTR?
They can use the 18002 system that exists at present, OR they can use our new TextNumber which will start with 03 for landlines and 07 for mobiles. This will connect them via the relay service.

I believe using the TextNumber will automatically trigger the app on our PC/smartphone etc and it will flash/ring/pop up and we can answer it in software.

How to register for a TextNumber (fake relay phone number)
Register with Next Generation Text Service (NGTS) via an automated process using the device and number you wish to use. This will generate an automated TextNumber for that device's number. I assume this will be possible entirely in text as needed.

TextNumbers should be free to us, one TextNumber per number. If we change mobile/landline numbers we can just move our existing text number to cover it.

We will have to use our TextNumber once a year to keep it from being de-activated.

Our TextNumber will show up on callerIDs and can be withheld as usual. When calling emergency services 18000 our original number will show for localising us purposes but the services will be told the TextNumber by the relay op.

Can deaf and hearing people in the same household share a phoneline.
Yes! For calls to come through to the house or even mobile just give out the usual number. For calls to come via relay give out the relevant TextNumber.

I am not sure if the mobile TextNumber will handle SMS smoothly or if we'll end up with one mobile number for SMS and another for incoming calls via relay. I hope it won't be two numbers, if it is, and it's annoying we can complain and insist OfCom get that changed.

Will the relaying in NGTR be speech recognition or a human operator?
It will be a human operator required to type at least 40wpm (unless recipient needs it slower e.g. is using Braille) and on average 60wpm. This is a bit slow and NADP and SENSE have raised concerns with OfCom who may revise the standard upwards. Early indications from people online are even pre-release of NGTR relay ops are faster and smoother than usual...

There doesn't seem to be a plan to use computerised speech recognition as the technology is simply no where near suitable yet.

Can businesses download the app and have deaf people contact them directly through NGTR?
Yes, Text-to-Text calls will still be possible via the app or current textphone devices without the relay assistant. Businesses can download the app on their own systems.

Not sure why anyone would want to do the above give many deaf people would prefer online chat systems either via a website or Skype. Also thought needs to be put into how businesses will detect and answer incoming calls swiftly.

How will calls be paid for?
For the hearing person calling a deaf person using TextNumbers they will be billed at the usual minutely rate with no automatic rebate as the main purpose of TextNumbers is for businesses who won't care. An automatic rebate was deemed unlikely to be routinely necessary due to the prevalence of 'inclusive minutes' and 'minute bundles' which NGTR calls must be able to come out of via landline and mobile service providers.

A hearing caller using 18002 prefix instead of the TextNumber will still get the usual rebate (if their telecoms provider handles it right) which would work for someone who called a deaf person regularly. Although I'd expect a regular caller of a deaf person for long calls to be using something civilised like instant messaging e.g Skype etc or SMS or video calls :).

For the deaf person we will still be using a prefix 18001 so will automatically get our rebate and our telecoms company MUST provide that. I think this means that we will have NGTR items on our usual phone bills and landline and mobile phone companies have to handle this by 18th April even though they have not had enough time to test it. My understanding is Telecoms companies have to give us rebate, so might have to give us free calls via relay till they sort it out. :)

Sources and links

Next Generation Text Service Website very sparse at present, I hope it'll improve ASAP.

OfCom's NGTR documents page which is a bit confusing.

Annex 6 is worth reading for a simple breakdown of stuff.

OfCom Review of Relay Services Oct 2012 contains useful stuff in detail.

BSL explanation of NGTR from OfCom from 3rd March .

NGTR explained by Limping Chicken.

Sense deaf-blindness charity response to NGTR.

Receiving an incoming call from a textphone user via TextRelay

*ring ring* *ring ring*

Please hold for an operator-assisted call from a textphone user

The computerised female voice telling you that you are the lucky recipient of a TextRelay call

For more information about Textphones and TextRelay see my post deaf and speech impaired people's access to telephony or the UK's TextRelay website.

Hanging up on the scary recorded message is common

This voice is so much like automated spam that I am not surprised so many people hang up on it as soon as they hear "computerised voice". I almost expect to be hung up on by 75% of organisations or recipients not used to receiving calls via TextRelay.

I'll generally forgive one hang-up by someone who hasn't used relay before. However it's often 2, 3 or even 4 or more hangups on the recorded message or even a live operator themselves that gets tiring and stressful. Sometimes TextRelay can redial for me, so I don't get another call-connection charge, but sometimes I have to redial from scratch which is slow due to all the connecty gubbins that has to happen.

Hanging up on TextRelay users is unlawful as well as annoying!

I should also point out that it is unlawful for an organisation to hang up on a relay user or refuse to accept the call as it is disability discrimination under the Equality Act 2010 access to goods and services by denial of service. There is case law Gordon Waring v DCW Private Hire Cullingworth Taxis.

I have occasionally had staff at an organisation be very rude to me (taxi firms are notorious) and the operator on relay and refuse to take my call. I usually try and follow this up with a complaint because on one occasion they did apologise and promise to train their staff.

Please do take TextRelay calls - hold the line

The best thing to do if you hear Please hold for an operator-assisted call from a textphone user is hold the line and follow the instructions. Even if the message turns out to be spam, they can't charge money to your phonebill while you just listen and it is at worst a few seconds of your time.

You may also hear Please wait. Please wait before an operator connects but they should connect within a minute or two.

TextRelay Operator connects into the call

Once the relay operator (sometimes called relay assistant) connects they will say something like

Hello, you have a call from a deaf or speech impaired person and I will be relaying the call. Please say "go ahead" when you have finished speaking.

You can ask the operator at any time to explain or clarify how to use the service as this may not be automatically offered due to customer preference testing.

Turn taking on a relay call

Calls via TextRelay can currently only allow one person to speak at a time, much like a radio. This is because of the mixed modes of the call.

If you say yes to receiving the call, the textphone using caller will get the first turn to speak. If you have said who you are, this doesn't always get passed on. You can say "Yes, I accept this call, please say it's James on the line. Go Ahead

Once you have said Go ahead the operator will let the textphone user know it is their turn.

The textphone user may type their response to you, or they may speak it (see my TextRelay modes post for more info).

Textphone user is typing their responses

If the response is typed, (possibly the more common way TextRelay is used) the operator will speak what is typed to you. The operator will do their best but may mispronounce unfamiliar words.

When the textphone user has finished typing they will type GA to let the operator know to tell you it is your turn again. When it is your turn the operator will be typing what you say to the textphone user, they are not verbatim typists so speaking slowly and clearly will be helpful.

See my my post about TextRelay modes for more information.

Textphone user is speaking for themselves (VCO)

If the response is spoken, this is a mode called Voice Carry Over (VCO) you will hear the caller as you usually would, but you cannot interrupt or speak until the operator tells you that it is your turn.

It will take 1-2 seconds of apparent silence to switch from the textphone user speaking back to your turn as the relay operator is switched in and out of the call.

The Textphone user does not have the option to hear you speaking - this will change with BT's Next Generation Text Relay due to go live in April 2014!

Textphone user speaks for themselves (for speech impaired users)

Speech impaired people may use the Hearing Carry Over (HCO) mode of TextRelay where they speak for themselves and type their responses for the Relay Operator to speak to you.

In this case the operator will speak for the speech impaired person but your spoken responses will go directly to them to hear as usual.

I don't know much about HCO mode or HCO users. There is also not much about it on TextRelay's website.

Deaf and speech impaired people's access to telephones

People who are deaf or speech impaired can use a textphone to access telephony. A textphone (sometimes called a Minicom like vacuum cleaners are called hoovers) is basically a keyboard bolted onto a modem cutting edge 1980s technology! In America a textphone is called a TTY. A textphone costs between £200 and £350 new.

Images are of a Minicom 6000 a brand of textphone which has a keyboard and a set of acoustic coupling cups on the top, a Geemarc Screenphone which is a modern voice carry over textphone with a handset and large screen but no keyboard and a Uniphone 1140 which is another textphone with a keyboard and a handset

Historically textphone users could only call other textphone users which was an improvement on relying on friends and family to relay or make telephone calls but still limited to people and organisations which owned a textphone. This mode can still be used by textphone users.

Image is a diagram of two textphone users connected to one another with a double ended arrow

Relay services between textphone and telephone users

In the 1980s the first UK Relay service then called TypeTalk was set up by RNID and BT. A relay service involves a relay operator joining the call to type to the textphone user and speak to the telephone user.

I am avoiding using the terms deaf/hearing to be inclusive as not all relay users will fall into the deaf/hearing categories..

Image is a diagram of a relay operator typing and speaking to relay calls between a textphone user and telephone user. The textphone user and telephone user have double headed arrows between themselves and the operator but no connection to one another

The UK relay service is now called TextRelay but many people still call it by its old name TypeTalk. Textrelay has a website at http://www.textrelay.org/

Calls via TextRelay are usually eligible for an automatic 60% call-rebate to account for the extra time these calls take so the users are not disadvantaged by higher call costs.

Making a TextRelay call

A TextRelay call can be initiated or received by either a textphone or a telephone user.

Hearing telephone user initiating a phonecall to textphone user via TextRelay

You need to dial 18002 before the full number of a textphone user to relay the call via TextRelay.

There will probably be some automated recorded instructions in a flat computerised female voice saying something like Welcome to BT TextDirect or TextRelay please hold for connection

These instructions will tell you what to do and should be followed until the operator connects (there can sometimes be a few minutes delay if it is busy).

Once connected the relay operator should ask you if you know how the service works, but if they don't, you can ask them to explain it. The textphone user will be given EXPLAINING TEXTRELAY PLS WAIT... messages at this point so they know what's causing a delay.

The relay operator will explain that you the caller and recipient need to take turns to communicate like a radio conversation. When you have finished your turn you should say "go ahead" or "over". This lets the textphone user know it is their turn.

Each side communicates in turn with go ahead/GA between each. Don't talk if it's not your turn as some relay operators will type that while the textphone user is typing and that causes a mixture of operator typing and textphone typing on the screen which is horrible and confusing for the textphone user.

When you want to end the call after saying goodbye etc you can say "stopping" so the operator knows to type SK SK which is short for 'stop keying'.

If your phoneline doesn't allow 18002 to be dialed (common on some workplace systems) contact your telecoms provider for advice, but be prepared for them not to know very much. Ask them to contact the TextRelay customer service for advice on how to set up their systems.

Deaf or speech impaired textphone user phoning someone via TextRelay

A deaf or speech impaired textphone user uses their textphone to dial 18001 before the full telephone number of the telephone user they wish to call. Each textphone has a different way of dialing, you can find many textphone manuals on textrelay's website at http://www.textrelay.org/downloads.php

Once you have dialed the textphone will display call progress information from TextRelay starting with

Dialing the number: TXD DIALING 18001 0121 ### ####

Waiting for the other side to pick up: TXD RING TXD RING TXD RING

If line is engaged TXD ENGAGED SKSK

Once line is answered, waiting for an operator to connect: TXD CONNECTING TEXTRELAY TXD CONNECTING TEXTRELAY

Operator connects and is explaining TextRelay to the other person: TXD OPERATOR CONNECTED PLS WAIT EXPLAINING TEXT RELAY PLEASE WAIT

You will finally be put through with something like HELLO GA
if the person has given their name already it is 50:50 if the operator passes it on.

It is now time for you to type something yourself - e.g. Hello, this is Natalya, who is speaking pls? GA or Hello, this is Natalya, am I speaking to Ahmed Patel pls? GA

The GA is needed to let the other person know when to speak, you shouldn't type without your GA and they shouldn't try to speak theirs although an operator may relay (type) what is being said anyway. I think some operators tell the other person not to do this, others just type over you resulting in a mixture of in/out typing. This can also happen if you type when it's not your turn. If this happens, I recommend not typing till the typing has finished, and if it is your turn either ask the operator not to do that by typing (note to operator....) or asking the other person not to talk out of turn.

When you are ready to end the call you can sign off Thanks ever so much for your help. Bye SKSK or Thanks, bye. BIBISKSK

I am usually polite and remain on the line till the other person has also said SK SK and THANK YOU FOR USING TEXTRELAY comes up in case there is anything else but many people hang up as soon as they have SKed.

Other messages you may come across using TextRelay on a Textphone

If your recipient hangs up before the operator connects NO ONE ON-LINE, WOULD YOU LIKE ME TO REDIAL? GA You should be able to say Yes pls GA but sometimes the line is dead and you will need to redial manually which is annoying (and costs you another call connection charge).

If the other person hangs up after operator connects: CALLED PARTY HAS HUNG UP, WOULD YOU LIKE ME TO REDIAL? GA this time saying yes should work as there is definitely an operator there.

Sometimes an operator is pulled out of your call to handle an emergency, you will get an INTERRUPT OPERATOR CALLED TO EMERGENCY CALL type message followed by TXD CONNECTING TEXTRELAY TXD CONNECTING TEXTRELAY while waiting for a new operator who usually connects in within a minute.

Other TextRelay calling prefixes

180015 is for textphone users to dialanother textphone or minicom number to get the 60% call rebate and more useful progress messages. This cannot be used by telephone users. Some telecoms providers don't offer the call rebate even though they should be doing it. You can contact TextRelay's customer service if you want advice on this.

18000 is the TextRelay equivalent of 999 and will get you an operator instantly - they will pull operators off an existing call if needed.

Using TextRelay without a textphone

As of January 2014 it is not very easy to use TextRelay without a textphone. This should change in April 2014 with Next Generation Text Relay (I can't wait!).

While in theory councils and social services can provide textphones many deaf people find that this isn't possible in reality as there's limited budgets and often it's a choice between fire safety and other equipment and a textphone. Some people have had success by challenging initial refusals...

It is possible to set up a laptop and a modem but instructions are hard to find. There is also Aupix PhoneRelay software at http://www.aupix.com/tcphone/relay but this doesn't have the 60% call rebate and can be quite expensive.

Why I sued HMRC for disability discrimination and accepted a settlement

I sued because nothing else worked.

Action on Hearing loss claim there are nearly 10 million people with a hearing loss in the UK; 800,000 of them have a severe or profound loss like mine. Lots of deaf people and those with other impairments such as mental illnesses and autism struggle with telephony. Yet HMRC and other large organisations have not yet got with the 21st century to provide viable and more accessible alternatives.

HMRC are a government organisation who deserve every bit of their reputation as bureaucratic bullies as they clearly demonstrated right to the end of my wrangles with them. They are the most disablist and rude organisation I have ever dealt with and I hope never to have to communicate with them again!

I hope publishing the outline of my case encourages other deaf and disabled people being discriminated against by HMRC or similar governmental/bureaucratic organisation to seek legal advice from Unity Law like I did or with another reputable law firm.

Telephony and HMRC

The problem started with HMRC's regular voice Working Tax Credits (WTC) advice phonelines being overloaded in 2008 - especially during out-of-work hours - the only times I had access to my TextPhone. (My blog entry on why telephony is difficult for me.

HMRC's phonelines have never been reliable or easy to get through to. This has been happening for years and is supported by HMRC's own research.
Some phonelines even have hold music which interferes with TextRelay by making my Minicom think it is receiving modem tone instructions as per the printout below.

Textphone users using TextRelay are more impacted by being unable to connect a call as it takes a lot longer for our calls to connect in the first place so we cannot quickly redial. I also found that once connected to HMRC lines I was "accidentally disconnected" an awful lot when being transferred, not something hearing people seem to experience.

HMRC's direct textphone lines (i.e textphone to textphone) are even worse! I don't think I ever got one to work in the past six years. HMRC now blatantly offer less favourable service to direct-textphone users by not answering their main working tax credits textphone line when they do answer their voice line equivalent as shown on the clickable screengrab of their website below.

I don't take incoming calls because most people and organisations don't use the 18002 dialing prefix properly. I also don't have anyone who can relay phonecalls for me reliably and feel that as a legally competent adult that I shouldn't need anyone to do this for me. I repeatedly told HMRC both of these things and that in the 21st century they should have secure webchat and email style systems but was told this wasn't possible for security reasons. There was no way for me to say that I'd rather take the "security risk" than be constantly discriminated against.

Extra disability issues

To make things even more complicated, in 2009 one of my other arm impairments suddenly worsened so I went from being able to type as much as I liked on suitable keyboards to having very variable typing ability and finding my Minicom's keyboard was not possible to type on for an HMRC length call.

HMRC and written correspondence

My very first letter to HMRC written after weeks of being unable to get through to by textphone for advice didn't contain the correct incantation of "HMRC's magic jargon words" so HMRC did not apply one of their own rules "4 week overrun" to my case.

By the time I knew that I needed to use magic words I had missed a very tight HMRC deadline which HMRC refused to waive. Over 4 years I

Requested review

Disputed

Appealed

Requested notional payments

Complained

Requested that HMRC completed a Discrimination and other prohibited conduct form

in an attempt to get HMRC to recognise their mistake. Some of them I tried multiple times. HMRC have no system for "We got it wrong with the original information".

Despite me telling HMRC that I struggle with some kinds of language because of a language impairment they also repeatedly refused to simplify or clarify the content or wording of their letters.

Most of my letters explained why telephones are inaccessible to me and that I don't have a third-party to handle my calls but this didn't stop HMRC repeatedly responding by telling me to phone them or for me to get a third party to do so.

HMRC Appointments needed telephony to access

I even tried to get a face to face appointment with HMRC, hoping that if I could speak to a real person and explain my case that they would stop stonewalling me with bureaucratese.

My first appointment request in writing, giving my availability and requesting Speech to Text Reporting STTR/palantypy (aka CART and VSTT) was treated as an appeal by the case officer who wrote back to me saying said appeal had failed and completely ignored my appointment request.

My second appointment attempt involved me phoning HMRC to tell them I needed an appointment with STTR/Palantypy support and was available any Wednesday. I ended up having to explain to the advisor that I couldn't take incoming calls and didn't have a third party who could answer a call over the next two days.

Eventually the advisor spoke to a manager and agreed to send a letter which took three weeks to arrive. The letter asked if I wanted a signer (NRCPD registered registered (RSLI) British Sign Language / English interpreter) so the information about STTR/palantypy had been lost - again. I tried to fax my reply requesting STTR/palantypy to HMRC but their fax machine didn't work so I had to post it - which caused further delay as I was unwell at the time.

HMRC cancelled my appointment (and didn't tell me)

I turned up to my appointment and reported to the reception desk where the staff couldn't find my name on any lists. It turns out someone had tried to email me (I think it never left HMRC's servers) and I was given a printout of an email:

We are in the process of trying to book a Pala Typist [sic] instead of a signer as you requested. We will need to rearrange your appointment for an alternative date. As soon as it can be arranged we will confirm the date and time and provide you with directions.

When checking my email on my phone to prove that I had never received this email I got reprimanded by staff because there were signs up banning people from using their phones.

As well as wasting my time - the whole experience was stressful and intimidating despite the staff being polite and having good deaf awareness.

HMRC then refused me a replacement appointment

After some more slow postal correspondence trying to set up a replacement appointment, where I yet again had to repeatedly tell HMRC my availability and that I needed STTR/palantypy not a signer (sign language interpreter), HMRC sent me a letter refusing me an appointment entirely.

HMRC continue to demand the money

In 2012 I got various letters threatening me with debt collectors and court if I didn't repay the alleged overpayment. I wrote back telling them that I wasn't paying and that I would be happy to explain to a court how hard I had worked to communicate and how inaccessible HMRC were...

HMRC then told me they would change my tax code to extract the money. This is very clever as it's not possible to legally challenge that. When I tried to phone HMRC to object as per instructions in the letter HMRC's phoneline hold music interfered with my Minicom 6000P causing it to continually spew nonsense before disconnecting after about 20 minutes of waiting to connect to an adviser.

Legal support from Unity Law

At this point I did what I should have done in 2011. I sought legal advice from Unity Law a specialist firm of disability discrimination solicitors. Unity's staff were fantastic, the lawyers did everything by email and postal letters, they never asked me to phone them, after a communication misunderstanding they followed my advice on communicating more clearly with me and always answered any questions that I had.

Unity started out asking me to write to HMRC to request an appointment again telling HMRC that I could not use the telephone. HMRC took over seven weeks to reply telling me that I had to telephone their enquiry centre for an appointment.

My lawyer decided this constituted

Indirect discrimination,

Discrimination Arising from Disability

Failure to make reasonable adjustments.

My case was taken on a Conditional Fee Agreement (no win, no fee) as we had a higher than 50% chance of success - an option which would be less possible for me today due to changes in the law about legal cases.

I had to find every letter I had sent or received from HMRC, scan them, log them and email them to my lawyer who used them to start drafting my case against HMRC and sought advice from a barrister. I also requested my personal records "Subject Access Request" from HMRC under the Data Protection Act and got some interesting screenshots of HMRC advisers notes which showed serious misunderstandings about disability rights and the law which I sent to my lawyer.

My lawyer then drafted A letter of claim which was basically a time-line of problematic events, quotations of large sections of the law, request for HMRC to compensate me, fix the problems and cover my legal costs.

For a summary timeline of my dealing with Unity go to my blog entry on it.

HMRC's initial responses

Upon receipt of our first pre-action letter HMRC requested and we granted an extension for them to investigate.

HMRC's first response was sent to me instead of my lawyer (in breach of the solicitor's code of practice) and while it finally acknowledged HMRC had made a mistake about the overpayment and was arranging repayment with a mere £25 "compensation" for inconvenience it suggested I could use a third-party for phones; didn't acknowledge the disability discrimination complaints and refused to pay my legal fees.

My lawyer and I were not impressed, so she drafted up another legal letter telling HMRC that they needed to answer the disability discrimination claims; telling me to use a third-party was legally inappropriate (It's HMRC's duty to make reasonable adjustments not mine) and that if we didn't receive a suitable reply we would proceed to court-action.

HMRC assigned a new lawyer at their end and requested a further 28 days to respond and proof that I was legally disabled. I felt HMRC had wasted the time they had already had in not taking me seriously and fobbing me off but my lawyer advised that we should allow it and suggested she suggested an initial settlement offer, which I agreed to.

HMRC agree to settle

HMRC offered me £7,500 which was 3/4 the compensation settlement amount we asked for taking into account of the stress that this matter has caused

natalyad

I did my research and found the compensation amount I was offered was higher than the few disability discrimination payouts I've been able to find online:

Mark Daniels, a wheelchair user being refused entry to a club and taunted by staff

David Allen, a wheelchair user being refused accessible access to his bank

Doug Paulley, a wheelchair user being refused access to a bus because a buggy user refused to move from the wheelchair space.
the few recorded court outcomes I could find for non-employment disability discrimination.

HMRC denied disability discrimination despite shortcomings

HMRC accept that there have been occasions where they have fallen short of the standards natalyad was entitled to expect from them.

However they do not accept that those shortcomings amount to having a provision, criteria or practice (PCP) which creates a substantial disadvantage to natalyad and which amounts to less favourable treatment arising from her disability amounting to direct discrimination.

We do not accept that we are in breach of obligations under the Equality Act 2010 (or otherwise) but we do accept that we could and should have done things better and apologise for these shortcomings.

HMRC tried to insinuate that my telephony experiences were untrue

The allegation implies that textphone lines are always unanswered but the result of our own "mystery shopping" (part of our published research) was that the mystery shoppers were able to get a response. However we accept that persistence through repeated calls and waits may be needed to get through.

We are aware our textphone service does not always meet the standards we desire

The mystery shopping was done over two weeks in March 2012 and the report is actually pretty damning and well worth reading!

HMRC admitted that they don't answer "answerable" textphone lines when callcentres are busy

Textphone technology is different to ordinary telephone and as a result it is not integrated into the contract centre IT architecture.

This means that these phones cannot ordinarily be answered by advisors working to answer voice calls and as our contact centres are often under great pressure we accept that there are times when the textphone service suffers.

This is basically admitting that textphone calls are likely not to be answered when the callcentres are busy - which is quite often!

I'm both happy and unhappy with the outcome

I am unhappy that HMRC continue to maintain a systematically and institutionally disablist position of failing to recognise that my issues arose and were perpetuated due to poor accessibility of their systems.

It was never about the money, nothing compensates me for the six years of stress, worry, fury and frustration at being constantly stonewalled by jargonistic bureaucracy. Nevermind the hours spent fighting HMRC and just doing the legal case - it's probably still a pathetic hourly rate! However I shall enjoy spending the compensation and saying "HMRC paid for that!".

I am unhappy that HMRC still consider it acceptable to insist on telephony being the primary contact method and continue to tell deaf people to get "third party assistance" when this disables us!

When I expressed concern at "nothing changing" if I have the misfortune to have to deal with HMRC again my lawyer said that I should contact Unity immediately if HMRC discriminates against me in future.

What next for deaf people and HMRC

Organisations such as Pardon, UK Council of Deaf people (UKCoD) and so on have been involved in consultations with HMRC at a high level feeding back information from people discussing difficulties online.

At around the time my settlement letter was received I discovered HMRC now offer an online appointment booker which has a variety of communication support options on it.

We need to stand up for ourselves, insist on appropriate communication channels and support. If HMRC and other agencies discriminate against us, we need to complain and if necessary seek legal advice or request that representative bodies such as Action on Hearing Loss raise concerns at a high level.

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!