Why is it that some people still have never heard of a TTY and deaf relay?
By nonew3
@nonew3 (1941)
United States
August 22, 2008 1:47pm CST
I have a water leak in my apartment (yet again, for the upteenth time), and the maintenance guy came over.
I then explained to him that when he dials my phone number he needs to call the local relay number (which I gave to him), and to use that to call my TTY.
He then said that he had never heard of or seen a TTY, and he had no idea what relay is. I then had to explain the whole thing to him, what a TTY is, show him my TTY, and how to use relay to call me on my TTY.
I then asked him, in disbelief, "You have never heard of a TTY? You haven't been trained in this?" and then looked at him puzzled.
He then said that he has dealt with plenty of hard of hearing clients but has never had any training in this and has never heard of or seen a TTY.
In this day and age of supposed sophistication and relative disability awareness, and the fact that TTYs have been around since about the 1970's or so, how can it be that some people still have never heard of a TTY or relay?
I then called the local state relay and asked them why some people still have never heard of a TTY and relay. The customer service replied that it is probably because they don't advertise.
I am seriously considering volunteering with the local state relay to help get the word out. I find this problem of ignorance to be appalling. There is no excuse for this.
If there is going to be decent disability accommodation and acceptance, and less disability discrimination, this problem needs to be fixed.
1 person likes this
4 responses
@sedel1027 (17846)
• Cupertino, California
22 Aug 08
If it were not for TV, I wouldn't know what it is either. I have never had to use a relay or TTY service.
@sedel1027 (17846)
• Cupertino, California
22 Aug 08
Well I have seen the TTY numbers written on like the power bill and places like that, but actually know how the service works or was ever taught about it, I can't say that has ever happened. Ya know the only reason I know about TTY is from an 1980s TV show where 1 episode had the relay box in it.
@nonew3 (1941)
• United States
22 Aug 08
I guess that a lot of people learn about TTY through TV?
Maybe the repairman who never heard of TTY has never watched TV? That can't be right. That just sounds strange. Surely he has watched some TV during his lifetime.
It sounds like the state relay association has done a very poor job of getting the word out about their services.
@Hatley (163776)
• Garden Grove, California
9 Mar 11
ni nonew I am astounded as so many companies and social security and my hmo all have TTy and sometimes if I cannot just cannot really hear a customer helper and its most important I will start over on a phone number from TTy . and i am not really deaf just slightly so but some
customer service people will speak on the phone so softly if you do not have keen hearing you get garbled messages. like the lady from my cable company who was trying to walk me through resetting my router and modem
and I would hear plug in the blah blah to the blah and then wait blah blah so I had to ask them to send a repair person. He first fussed at me for not having done it myself then I told him Hilda who seemed to be
speaking German English sounded all garbled and he laughed. yes she is hard to understand. so if I had used the tty thing I would have been able to do it myself.
@kenzie45230 (3560)
• United States
22 Aug 08
I agree. It's amazing that everyone doesn't know about this. I wonder why it was never shown on TV when Marlee Matlin was in such important roles. That would have been educational.
When my son was home schooling, we were a part of an umbrella school where the directors insisted that every kid take some classes in sign language. I wondered why and discovered that their daughter-in-law was deaf. When the daughter-in-law and their son moved back to FL, and she became a part of the school, we all had to learn about TTY.
@kenzie45230 (3560)
• United States
22 Aug 08
It's crazy - especially about the repair and housing personnel.
My hubby is probably going to have to get hearing aides. He's not thrilled about that. But he has trouble with some tones and with soft spoken people (like me). He also has trouble when there are multiple conversations going on in one room. Rather than being able to hear the closest person, he hears the ones in the middle of the room.
@nonew3 (1941)
• United States
22 Aug 08
Yeah. One would think that the repair people would know what a TTY is without my having to educate them. That's not really my job as a client of theirs.
Good luck on the hearing aids. Unfortunately, I have heard that hearing aids won't do anything for my problem. All it does it make the confusion louder. But, maybe it will help him.
