Sprint Relay Conference Captioning: My Experience Using an Outstanding Service

By Arlene Romoff

Editor: I have long argued that the telephone relay services available to folks who prefer oral methods are far inferior to the services available to folks who sign. An example is the lack of universal access to relay conference captioning. What is "relay conference captioning?", you ask. I rest my case. But do read this article to find out.

Arlene Romoff is President of the Hearing Loss Association of New Jersey, and the author of "HEAR AGAIN - Back to Life with a Cochlear Implant". This article is republished with her kind permission.

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May 2009

As a member of the Hearing Loss Association of America, and its New Jersey state affiliate, the Hearing Loss Association of New Jersey (www.hearingloss-nj.org), I am very "connected" and know about the latest technology and access services that can make life so much easier for people with hearing loss. It's no surprise, then, that I'd heard about Sprint Relay Conference Captioning (RCC), a very useful service available to New Jersey residents, which provides free realtime CART captioning when participating in conference calls. I had read about it, thought it was a wonderful service, even told others about it, but I'd never had the chance to use it myself - until recently.

I am on the Board of Directors of the League for the Hard of Hearing, and had a meeting coming up that I wasn't able to attend in person. Since the League was providing conference call access for this meeting, I knew that this was finally my opportunity to try RCC. As a cochlear implant user, I've usually been able to use a regular voice phone without needing relay service; but, a conference call is much more challenging than a regular one-on-one voice call. There are several different people speaking, the volume of their voices will vary, I may not catch every word, and even if I did, it would require a lot of concentration. I wanted to be able to concentrate on the issues being discussed at the meeting - not just the words - and I knew from experience that this was easier to do if I listened while following along with captioning. RCC was just what I needed, but I still was a little apprehensive about whether RCC would be complicated to set up and use.

I shouldn't have worried at all. RCC was a breeze to use. All I had to do was access the RCC Web site www.njrelaycc. com) and schedule the conference call. The menus were easy to use, the instructions were clear. I was amazed it was so simple. I had to schedule my conference call at least 48 hours in advance, which I did. I entered the conference call phone number and access number, which I knew from my League meeting notice. I received an RCC confirmation number, and I was all set.

On the day of the meeting, I logged onto that Web site again, entered my confirmation number, and a screen popped up, with a captioner ready to caption my meeting. I wanted to hear the conference call too, so I called the conference call number using my own phone and supplied the access number. This enabled me to hear the conference attendees, and speak and be heard directly at the meeting.

When the conference call began, the text of the proceedings was provided via CART captioning, appearing on the screen of my computer. I had the option of changing the background color and font size. If I hadn't been able to voice for myself, there was a box to type into, so the captioner could voice for the user at the meeting.

I was totally relaxed with this arrangement. I was sitting in front of my computer, listening to the meeting by phone, but having this wonderful captioning "safety net," catching any words I missed, and letting me relax and concentrate on the issues being discussed. This enabled me to participate fully, adding my own comments appropriately. That's exactly what this technology was intended to do. At the end of the meeting, the captioner logged off, and I had the option of saving the entire transcript, which I did.