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Staying connected

Special telephones and service are available free for those with hearing and speech impairment.

By SHARON L. BOND
Published January 15, 2006

SEMINOLE - The Deaf and Hearing Connection for Tampa Bay has a trove of equipment that allows deaf, hard of hearing and speech impaired people to communicate.

Use of the equipment is free because the general population pays for it through a small telecommunications fee on phone bills.

The trouble is, not very many people know about Florida Telecommunications Relay Inc. In fact the agency describes itself as one of Florida's best kept secrets.

Connection director Julie Church said most people find out about the service through word of mouth or from an audiologist who refers patients.

"We do not have an advertising budget for the program, and the few times we have paid for advertisements, many people seem to think we are trying to sell them something or that getting an amplified phone at no charge is too good to be true," Church said in an e-mail last week.

The agency tries to get out word about the equipment at health fairs, senior centers and nursing homes.

It is not just the elderly who have hearing problems.

June Hogan, who volunteers at Connections, lost her hearing when she was 19. Now 41, she has a captioned telephone. It displays in type what the caller is saying.

"I missed talking on the phone very much. Now I talk people's ears off," Hogan wrote in an e-mail. "It's nice to be able to call anywhere and make appointments or find out info."

Church said Pinellas County has 79,247 people who are defined as hard of hearing and another 4,515 who are deaf. In Hillsborough County, which Deaf and Hearing Connection also serves, the numbers are 85,910 hard of hearing and 4,895 deaf. Out of those four numbers combined, about 30,000 have special telephones, she said.

In addition to the captioned telephone, equipment includes telephones for the hard of hearing that allow volume to be adjusted and make the caller's voice clearer. For the speech impaired, telephones are available that provide more volume for the speaker.

The Deaf and Hearing Connection for Tampa Bay is one of 19 regional distributors of the equipment in Florida. It is located at 7545 83rd St. N in Seminole.

A person who wants the equipment must be a Florida resident and be certified as deaf, hard of hearing severe enough that it is difficult to recognize speech during phone talks, deaf and blind or have permanent hearing and visual problems or be speech impaired. There is an application process.

Connections can schedule training sessions four times per day, four days a week.

Not only do those who need the equipment not know about Florida Telecommunications Relay, others in the general public are not familiar with the different telephones used by deaf and hard of hearing. That is one thing that bugs Hogan.

"Many times, I have tried to make calls and people hang up on me. There is a time lag between when they speak and when I respond because their end of the conversation is sent to a computer which transfers their speech to captions, which show up on my CapTel phone.

"There is a definite time lag, and everybody has to learn of that and have patience."

Church said that while there is no charge to the user for the equipment, it is considered a loan and must be returned to the agency if the user dies or no longer needs the equipment.

For more information about Florida Telecommunications Relay Inc., call 1-800-222-3448 for voice and 1-888-447-5620 for text telephone. Visit the Web site at www.ftri.org To contact Deaf and Hearing Connection, call 399-9983 for voice or 399-9422 for text telephone. The Web site address is www.dhctb.org

[Last modified January 15, 2006, 01:47:20]