National Association of the Deaf
Relay
Imagine asking your neighbors to call the doctor for you—or to even call pizza! Because of
the Americans with Disabilities Act, statewide TTY relay services became mandatory. The NAD
played an important role in negotiating with disability advocacy groups for this provision,
during the drafting of the ADA.
The NAD fought for multi-vendoring—the right to choose relay service providers. The NAD was
opposed by others who believed that multi-vendoring was unrealistic and not feasible.
Deaf and hard of hearing individuals now have the right to choose from numerous relay
service providers in different format, whether it is traditional TTY relay, Internet Protocol (IP)
relay, or Video Relay Services (VRS). Today traditional TTY relay is now being overtaken by
greater reliance on IP relay services and video relay services (VRS).
The NAD continues to work hard to ensure full telecommunication access – what we are now
seeing is that VRS is affording deaf people with near-functional equivalency. Relay access has
also provided unprecedented employment choices and advancement opportunities. Numerous
issues still surround relay services including quality, funding, technology development and
research, and universal access.
To refer others to this page, please use:
http://www.nad.org/relay
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