----- Original Message -----
From: "Segalman, Ph.D., Bob" <[log in to unmask]>
To: "ListServe SpeechtoSpeech (E-mail)" <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, June 09, 2003 3:51 PM
Subject: National Ed Tech Plan
The Department of Education is seeking participation from a broad audience
to provide input into the development of the National Education Technology
Plan.
It asks what are the most important priorities for the plan. Here are the
comments that I submitted concerning TRS/STS. I encourage you to submit
similar comments.
Input is due by July 1.
http://www.nationaledtechplan.org/participate.asp
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Subject: National Education Technology Plan (NETP)
I would like the NETP reauthorization to require educating pupils with
speech and hearing disabilities to use the free national telephone access
service established for them.
REQUEST
I strongly urge that NETP provide education in telephone use for children
and teen-agers with hearing and speech disabilities. Many such people will
benefit from using the TTY relay service for those who are deaf and hard of
hearing and "Speech to Speech" (STS) for people with speaking difficulty
(PSDs). The FCC mandates these special telephone services.
RATIONALE
Millions of federal dollars are spent annually to provide these FCC mandated
relay services. Unfortunately, the FCC (as a regulatory agency) lacks
authority to require that the millions of Americans who can use relay
receive the training to use it. Because many people with hearing and speech
disabilities have other disabilities that prevent them from advocating for
relay/STS training. Thus, insufficient training is available.
WHAT IS RELAY?
The Telecommunications Relay Service (TRS) in each state provides telephone
access to people with hearing and speech disabilities who cannot utilize
standard telephone service. TRS for people who are deaf or hard of hearing
consists of a staff of telephone operators available 24 hours a day. These
operators translate voice transmissions to teletype communications for
people who are deaf and hearing impaired. Likewise, they translate teletype
(TTY) transmissions to voice for hearing people. Relay attempts to provide
telephone users with hearing impairments with telephone service approaching
that available to users of the regular voice telephone network.
STS is a similar telephone access service for PSDs that is free to users.
The STS service provides human revoicers for PSDs who are difficult to
understand by telephone. STS allows many PSDs to use the telephone
independently for the first time! Users access STS through their state's
provider of the TTY relay. Current STS usage in states with STS training
programs shows that many PSDs use STS readily.
WHO USES TRS?
Deaf and hard of hearing people make up TTY relay users.
Many STS users have cerebral palsy or similar developmental disabilities.
Most STS users can be understood by patient listeners with acute hearing who
have had a few hours of experience listening to PSDs. Users may also access
STS with a speech synthesizer or an artificial larynx. The general public
cannot understand most STS users' speech. Users may also have dyslexia or
limited hand use which precludes keyboarding adequate to use a TTY relay
service.
HOW DOES RELAY WORK?
A relay center consists of a staff of telephone operators available 24 hours
a day to assist deaf and hard of hearing telephone users. These operators
translate voice transmissions to teletype communications for the deaf and
hard of hearing users. Likewise, they translate teletype (TDD)
transmissions to voice for hearing people. Relay attempts to provide people
who are deaf and hard of hearing with telephone service approaching that
available to users of the regular voice telephone network.
To use STS: PSDs call toll free to reach a communications assistant (CA).
S/he places calls for the PSD and repeats his/her words to the listener.
Users like the increased speed of STS calls compared with TTY relay calls.
TTY relay is cumbersome for very slow PSD typists. STS works very much like
the TTY relay, except that STS users talk rather than type to a
communications assistant.
The American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA), the professional,
Scientific, and credentialing association for more than 105,000
audiologists, speech-language pathologists, and speech, language, and
hearing scientists, has supported similar requests.
CONCLUSION
To insure that children and teens with hearing and speech disabilities have
the opportunity to learn to use the telephone, I strongly urge that NETP
include provisions to teach all such children and teen-agers to use relay.
Sincerely,
Bob Segalman, Ph.D.
Founder of Speech to Speech
Submitted as a private individual
Mailing Address:
Bob Segalman, Ph.D.
Founder of Speech to Speech
California Department of Rehabilitation
2000 Evergreen Street, Att: REPS
Sacramento, CA 95815
1-877-833-6341 and ask for me at 916-263-8689
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