ISP Information:
One million hertz, or one million cycles per second.
ISP Glossary:
Megahertz - The boyfriend of a friend of mine was recently in an automobileaccident. Most of his injuries were relatively minor (considering hewas struck by a drunk driver at 80 mph), but his larynx ("voice box")was ruptured. He is currently unable to speak, and it is not yet clearto what extent the larynx will heal.As my friend and her boyfriend are currently on opposite coasts, theywould very much like to be able to communicate by telephone. The TDDrelay service would be an obvious piece in the puzzle, but I amwondering if the following setup is possible, both in the end-user TDDhardware and in the TDD relay service.Person A types on the TDD, with the relay operator reading the textaloud for Person B on the other end. Howver, Person B speaks directlyto Person A without going through the relay operator. (Since Person Acan still hear normally, there is no need to use the relay operator inthe other direction.)The specifics of this accident aside, there are certainly other peoplewho are speech-impaired but not hearing-impaired. Any pointers as towhat TDD units support this scheme, or whether such an arrangement islikely to be familiar/routine for the relay operator, are appreciated.Please use the e-mail address below, or reply to the Digest.Linc Madison * North American Area Codes & Splits * San Francisco, CAE-mail replies to: (rhymes with) Telecom bat LincMad bot Com[Lisa Minter note: First, let me say I am really sick at heart tohear about this incident involving your friend. Please pass along mycondolences. There really should be a special place in Hell for drunkendrivers. Has the drunk even yet gotten sober enough to understand whata serious thing he did? If he does know, does he have any remorse atall? I hope he will be severely punished by the court for what he did.Second, the various instant messenger things have largely replacedthe older style TTY machines. Yahoo, for example, especially becauseit is free has a large number of hearing/speech impaired users in oneof its groups communicating by instant messenger and the groupchat things, with cams, etc.Third, what you ask for is possible. Either party can initiate thecall, but the person *using the TTY machine* should be the one tocommunicate *using the machine* to the TTY operator that he iscapable of hearing. If the TTY operator is tipped off on that earlyon in the conversation it not only saves time for the operator butmakes the call easier to handle as well. Expect at the start of thecall that a few seconds or a minute will be wasted while the operatoracclimates him/herself since it is not the usual proceedure.Patrick just made a helpful suggestion also: If both parties havecomputers and Yahoo Instant Messenger, then let your newly handicappedfriend also get some inexpensive phone service (such as Vonage), thenhe calls her (they can talk a *long* time for very little money) andwhile he types on the screen, she can talk voice back to him. If theyhave cams attached, so much the better, and more private. Despite therather rigid rules of all TTY systems regards privacy in communications,it still is awkward and inconsiderate of the sensibilities of the TTYoperator to conduct certain kinds of conversations using a middleperson in the conversation. The instant messengers, cameras and aVonage or other *cheap* phone service would be a better alternative.Either way, Linc, pass along my condolences and I hope the guy recoversthe use of his voice sometime soon! Lisa M.]
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