Telephones.

[barakta]

If you received a call at home or work where when you picked up the handset you got told the following in a computerised voice.

"Welcome to BT TextDirect please hold for connection"

Then a few seconds later...

"Connecting Typetalk"What would you do

Comments

[angeoverhere]

Probably 2 - but it *might* depend on how much the BT voice sounded like a spamcall, as I've been getting some automated versions of these recently. But that's at home - in a work context you should try and take a call no matter what.

[barakta]

That's the problem, the spamcalls (which should be illegal if they aren't already). A lot of Deaf people's services have been ruined by spammers, the American relay service has been crippled by spammers using it and the operators not being allowed to hang up on them.

I don't know how you would reword the recorded message not to sound like a spambot, I think they have tried several times. If I had not had kimble to ring in voice and fwap them then I would have had to call the 'get the operator first' and then 'tell the operator something sane to say' thing which would cost me 0870 rates for the priviledge.

The main problem is education, people do not know what a TypeTalk call is like and I have never seen much advertising for it in a way that people will read.

Ho Hummm... The Library should however know better as they are covered by the DPA and hell they are a library damnit.

Natalya

[barakta]

A frightening number of people aren't. I have a policy of talking about it a lot to get people more in the know (I have even made an LJ entry about it).

I have only recently switched my calls to typetalk based ones and I am much less scared of the phone. I don't have to 'what' at them or ask them to speak up cos the background noise at my or their end is too loud.

Always did think the phone was a stupid idea, gimme irc anyday.

Natalya

[36]

Maybe I should use TypeTalk to phone the DBA at our hosting service, he has this dreadful Afrikaana accent that I can barely understand...

[barakta]

If you have access to a machine which can dial up and you know basic modem commands then it is easily possible.

Sadly it cannot be done over ADSL/other connection, it has to dialup directly. Any terminal emulator will do it, you just have to get the settings right and dial 18001 before the number you want :)

Natalya

[feanelwa]

Depends how awake I was. If I had just got out of bed I would probably hang up the first time, think "Oh shit, hang on, that might be somebody deaf" and then pick up if they rang again. If I was thinking properly I would probably stay on the line the first time. Although that's assuming I pick up the phone in the first place - I usually don't answer the landline because whoever it is, it won't be for me.

[barakta]

I usually ring back assuming that the person hasn't realised, or hung up as a reflex thing (Hell I have done it myself, hung up on people cos I couldn't hear - panic thing).

Most deaf people I know will ring back straight after, and again 5 or 10 mins later hoping to get someone else with clue.

Can I ask how you knew about typetalk, and if you have ever actually received a typetalk call?

I plan to educate as many people as I can to the existence of typetalk cos I think it is a good idea in principle even if some of the practice is annoyingly obtuse.

Natalya

[feanelwa]

Only through you talking about it. I've seen Typetalk numbers on various adverts and things but not often enough for it to register that this was a service offered to deaf people so they can use the phone. I haven't received a Typetalk call before.

[kimble]

The textphone numbers you see on advertising are for lines where a person with a textphone (also known as minicoms, as Minicom are the dominant textphone manufacturer) will (hopefully) answer your call directly. I.E. The typetalk relay service is not involved.

Sadly, more often than not, the textphone is "the weird keyboard phone thingy" that sits in the corner of the office that only $person_who_isn't_in_today knows how to use, so you end up calling the voice number via typetalk anyway.

[no1typo]

i would hold for the connection. - I always do as I am told

[barakta]

heh.

Do you receive many spam calls to home/work. Many of the people who seem confused about typetalk are confused because it is similar to the spamcalls they get which are made my robotic systems till a human connects in (which I think should be illegal if it isn't already).

Do you receive any/many typetalk calls at work, or in fact have you ever received a typetalk call?

I'm intrigued as to how people perceive typetalk - an interpreter friend of mine hates it a lot and thinks the operators make deaf people look stupid.

Natalya

[x_mass]

bt do a diffrent version for voice calls
my respnose is always the same
I hang up!
why should I hang around waiting for them to either advertise to me or to complain at me

[barakta]

In this case the call would have been from a deaf person using a textphone via the relay service TypeTalk. The difficulty is that the computerised message is ambiguous and people hang up thinking it is advertising.

This is very difficult for deaf people who have to contend with being hung up on, and ignored by many places. There is an option where the deaf person gets the operator to say something else in advance, but that costs the deaf person 0870 rates for the duration of that call (which is unfair).

Would you be any more likely to accept the call if there was a human operator who tried to explain typetalk?

Natalya

[x_mass]

the message is always
"incoming call from B, incoming call from BT"
I hang up on those
if it was anything else i wouldn't hang up
one of the reasons I hang up is that I have to contend with teh trnasphobia of BT going
"I would like to talk to Ms N'ha Ysabet is he there....Sorry Sir I must talk to Ms n'ha Ysabet" etc etc