Using (Cell) Phones: Voicemail for Deaf People (Telus Relay Service)

Voicemail for Deaf People

 

The following is the info from Western Institute for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing:

Hi my name is Janice Jickels. I work at the Western Institute for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing as head of the interpreting department.

I’d like to share with you some information, maybe its information you already know about, but I want to make sure the word gets out. Many deaf people have cell phones or blackberries, or devices from Telus, Bell, Fido, Rogers etc.

Deaf people have been frustrated with voicemail. You know what voicemail is, it’s like the answering machine function on a TTY, except it is spoken language left on your cell phone, we can’t hear the message and we tend to ignore them.

Cell phones and blackberries also have feature on a called voicemail. Now how can you use your voicemail feature?

First you need to set up a voicemail account, contact your provider, and ask to have voicemail added to your phone. There is a small monthly charge for that service. Once you have added voicemail you need to open the account and personalize it. You can do that by calling TRS, ask the operators to call the number provided to you by your cell phone company to access your voicemail.

The operator will then call the voicemail number, and you will have several options to choose from. The option you choose is “I want to set up my voicemail” you will be given an option to record a greeting, the TRS operator will do that for you. You can pick a standard greeting or personalized greeting.

You will find that you already have a password as part of setup the voicemail, use that password. The TRS operator will set up the greeting then your voicemail is activated and ready to go. If a hearing person calls your phone they will leave a voice message in the normal way and you will see on your phone “new voicemail.”

To retrieve that message, call 711 (Telus Relay Service) give the Telus operator the phone number the company provides to access voicemail, and your name and password.

Then the operator will type the messages that are recorded on your voicemail. And that’s all! The TRS operator will ask you if you want to delete or save the current message. You have the ability to save the message as long as you want on your cell phone. This is a great feature for deaf people because hearing people will be able to leave voicemail messages in the normal way, and we have the ability to retrieve those using TRS or any other relay service.

It is great to share this information because we’re all trying to get equal access, and you know how many of us get frustrated explain how to use TRS services, but now we can retrieve our own messages directly. It’s a great thing!

Many hearing people feel uncomfortable with having to go through a two step process. But now you don’t have to bother with that explanation. You just give them your cell phone number.
It becomes the deaf persons responsibility to collect their messages, But that’s already a big improvement, imagine if your trying to leave a contact number for a family member or employer, you just have to give them one phone number they can leave their message.

If you have any questions or want to share any tips with me, you can e-mail me at jjickels@telus.net or you can contact me through videophone it is 24.85.225.129

Thank you!

Posted via email from Ann Reflection