Looking for voice-to-text solution for an employee

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rkahn

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Hi, I'm hoping someone on these forums will be able to point me to equipment or services that will enable my company to provide voice<>text accommodation for an employee who does not use the telephone for reasons related to auditory processing. They have their own sprint app that they use for personal communication via iPad, but we need a solution for them at work. I have spent hours on the internet and have not found a solution for what seems to me a not uncommon need.

We are a small nonprofit and the staff person handles gift processing, so their primary need would be to make calls to and receive calls from donors who have questions or issues with their credit cards or similar matters. We have a VOIP system, but could also get them a stand alone line if needed, or use a software solution that doesn't rely on the phone system at all. I'm trying to avoid a traditional TTY, because they seem cumbersome and antiquated, although I'd be willing to look at one if it had a full display, rather than just a line or two.

Any help would be much appreciated!

Rachel
Oakland, CA
 
There isn't really any good solution that I found thus far for speech-to-text.

One option is to us a cation phone service, e.g. Hamilton CapTel, Clear Captions. One of the problems with these is the captions are often very delayed so the flow of conversation isn't natural. Also they can be garbled. It can be a hit or miss depending on if you get a good operator that keeps up with the call or someone who less skilled and hits the [speaker unclear] button far too often.

I know at least one person on AD has their work phone routed to their cellphone so they can use Innocaptions. Overall the quality of the captions from Innocaptions is better. I also like that I can make international calls with their app - the caption phone services are limited to US calls only. The main problem I have with Innocaptions is sometimes I get "all operators are busy please try again later" when I try make a call.

I am assuming your employee does not know ASL. If s/he does, than a video relay service is an option, e.g. Sorenson or Purple. Each of these offers the option to use your own voice but have an interpreter sign the other person.
 
Thanks for the suggestions, Zephren, I really appreciate it. It seems like the options you mentioned (captel and Innocaptions) assume that the user will speak and only needs text incoming. This employee requires text both ways. Is that correct, or am I misunderstanding. The personal Sprint relay service they use for themselves works perfectly this way, but when I called sprint about setting up a separate account for an employee they were less than responsive. Thanks again!
 
Ah, it wasn't clear that the employee could not speak for themselves and needed that part in text as well. I don't know what other options are available other than Sprint Relay or VRS. It is possible to route work calls to your employees existing number?
 
Sprint IP relay can be used on a desktop computer. You can set up your VOIP to forward to their sprint IP number.
 
Thanks, I'm hoping to find a solution that doesn't require my employee to use their personal resources and mix work into their private life. Sprint was unsympathetic to this position and wouldn't discuss issuing us a number or issuing my employee a separate number for work purposes.
 
I don't need it so I have not checked any details but an outfit names NextTalk has been running adds on this site that look like they may be able to provide the service you are looking for. I don't thing it would hurt to check with them. Good Luck
 
Jane B. said:
I don't need it so I have not checked any details but an outfit names NextTalk has been running adds on this site that look like they may be able to provide the service you are looking for. I don't thing it would hurt to check with them. Good Luck
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I forgot out NextTalk - good idea. I think their Access product is specifically for businesses.
 
rkahn said:
Thanks, I'm hoping to find a solution that doesn't require my employee to use their personal resources and mix work into their private life. Sprint was unsympathetic to this position and wouldn't discuss issuing us a number or issuing my employee a separate number for work purposes.
Click to expand...


I wonder if you can contact someone at the FCC about this.

Here is their info: https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/ip-relay-service

Hearing people are able to get seperate work and home phone numbers.

If Deaf people cannot do the same thing, that's not providing equal access.
 
I actually have 2 numbers for Sprint. One for my Sprint IP app on my iphone, and another one for my online account when I'm at the computer. I have never given out the online one, but will often make calls from my laptop. For incoming calls, that goes to the Sprint app on my iphone (and I do occasionally call out from my iphone's sprint app if I don't have my laptop with me). So it's possible your employee could get another number and use Sprint online at https://sprintip.com/index.jsp, he should be able to answer incoming calls though there. When I log onto the Sprint IP site to make a call, there's this bit above the text box:
Your Sprint IP ***-***-**** is available to receive calls
 
rkahn said:
Hi, I'm hoping someone on these forums will be able to point me to equipment or services that will enable my company to provide voice<>text accommodation for an employee who does not use the telephone for reasons related to auditory processing. They have their own sprint app that they use for personal communication via iPad, but we need a solution for them at work. I have spent hours on the internet and have not found a solution for what seems to me a not uncommon need.

We are a small nonprofit and the staff person handles gift processing, so their primary need would be to make calls to and receive calls from donors who have questions or issues with their credit cards or similar matters. We have a VOIP system, but could also get them a stand alone line if needed, or use a software solution that doesn't rely on the phone system at all. I'm trying to avoid a traditional TTY, because they seem cumbersome and antiquated, although I'd be willing to look at one if it had a full display, rather than just a line or two.

Any help would be much appreciated!

Rachel
Oakland, CA
Click to expand...

Hello Rachel

I am a hard of hearing business owner that use an ON-LINE CHAT PROGRAM to communicate with my customers. As you are aware TTY is a very old system that is part of the 60's and in my own personal view should be scrapped. It's not that expansive for a company to setup programs like LiveChat or other program like it. I live in Vancouver BC and many companies in my area are now incorporating a Chat service. Shaw Cable was one of the first to set this up. Now it's a normal to see a Chat Service offered by most if not all Cell companies. If you need more info on this let me know, would be happy to help out.

MacNewton
 
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