TCM0094260 - Contact - customers and employers: Typetalk (Info)

Text Relay (also known as Typetalk) is a phone relay service that enables deaf, deafened, hard of hearing, deaf-blind and speech-impaired people to communicate with hearing people over the phone.

When customers use the Text Relay service

• they will call us by textphone, using the BT textdirect prefix 18001
• an operator joins the line to relay the conversation
• the customer types their part of the conversation
• the operator reads out exactly what’s typed to the hearing person
• the hearing person replies saying ‘go ahead’ after speaking (this tells the operator they’ve finished speaking and the operator types exactly what’s said)
• the customer can then read the response on their textphone display panel.

Note: After receiving a request for or making a Text Relay phone call, you must check for any entries in the Application Notes field in Function CAPTURE APPLICATION or Function MAINTAIN HOUSEHOLD NOTES and enter the following message if it isn’t already present
‘NL01 - Customer’s preferred method of communication is by Typetalk’.

Note: To make or return a phone call to the customer, dial the BT textdirect prefix 18002.