Funding Assistance

Deaf and hard of hearing organizations paved the way--indeed, blazed a path--in lobbying for and securing funding for assistive technology for equal telephone access.

Now speech-challenged people have solutions, too.

Although no solutions previously existed for the severely speech disabled, help is now available with the Speech Enhancer Phone. Many states are paying all or part of the cost of this unique communication system.

To comply with Federal law, the telephone relay system was created many years ago to enable deaf and hard of hearing people to access the standard telephone network.  In many states a small surcharge was added to everyone’s telephone bill to fund the service. To assist deaf people with the relay, agencies purchased TTY units so their telephone conversations could be typed and read. This equipment was also funded by the telephone surcharge, and the program has been highly successful.

The agencies soon recognized that people with speech disabilities also faced challenges accessing the telephone network, and another great assistive service called Speech to Speech was begun. This service enables people with mild to moderate speech challenges to use the telephone by speaking to an operator, who then translates their speech and repeats it to the person on the other end of the line.  This service works well for people with mild to moderate speech challenges. Most often, though, the operators are themselves unable to understand persons with severely unintelligible speech, or inaudible voices, leaving these people frustrated by their attempts to use the telephone.

But now there’s help. In the same way that equal-access telephone agencies purchased TTY units to enable deaf people to access the relay system, agencies now purchase the Speech Enhancer Phone to enable those people with severe speech challenges to also have EQUAL ACCESS to Speech to Speech relay.

How to contact your state telephone program

Contact us to see if your state has a telephone equipment distribution program and learn how to contact them if they do.

Equal Access Programs

Many state telephone equipment programs provide equipment such as the Speech Enhancer Phone if:

• Speech is unclear
  Speech is too unclear to use an amplified phone or Speech-to-Speech relay service

• Speech is inaudible
  Speech is too weak to use an amplified telephone or Speech-to-Speech relay service

• Cannot type a conversation
  Finger mobility challenges prevent typing a conversation on a TTY or other "push-to-talk" augmentive communication device

Click to read the FCC Guidelines