Denise -

           What makes work enjoyable is that I designed a telephone access
service called Speech-to-Speech (again described below for your convenience)
and my job enabled me to convince nine states to add it  to their TTY relay.

        Unlike TTY relay, STS allows me to talk to an operator trained to
understand difficult speech.  S/he makes phone calls for me and repeats what
I say.  It's a little like 3-way calling. STS makes me and many other people
with speech disabilities independent on the telephone.  The pleasure of
setting up a system which helps other people makes work worth while.

 - Bob


PEOPLE WITH SPEECH DISABILITIES NOW HAVE A TELEPHONE SERVICE

If you have a speech disability and live in: ARIZONA, CALIFORNIA, MARYLAND,
NEVADA, SOUTH CAROLINA, WISCONSIN, GEORGIA, MINNESOTA and WASHINNGTON STATE,
you can now use a new, free telephone assistance service 24 hours a day.

This service, called Speech-to-Speech, provides "communications assistants"
(CA) for people with difficulty being understood by the public on the
telephone. We hope that the FCC will require all states to provide
Speech-to-Speech in two years.

If you have a speech disability, you can dial toll free to reach a patient,
trained communications assistant who is familiar with many speech patterns
and has excellent hearing and language skills. This operator makes telephone
calls for you and repeats your words exactly.

Users now make about 5,000 calls a month nationally. Speech-to-Speech is
also useful if you use a speech synthesizer. Speech-to-Speech is the only
way for many people to telephone others not accustomed to their speech. Many
Speech-to-Speech users have Parkinson's disease, cerebral palsy, multiple
sclerosis, or Muscular Dystrophy. Other users include
people who stutter or have had a laryngectomy or ALS.

I have cerebral palsy and Speech-to-Speech made telephone use
much easier for me. You can try out Speech-to-Speech, report
problems or get more information by calling 800-854-7784 and
asking the CA to call Dr. Bob Segalman at 916-263-8689 (W)
or 916-362-0982(H)  See also the new web page on Speech-to-Speech:

  http//www.stsnews.com/

Here are the U. S. Speech-to-Speech access numbers:

ARIZONA 1 800 842 6520
CALIFORNIA 1 800 854 7784
MARYLAND 1 800-785-5630
SOUTH CAROLINA 1 877 735 7277
WISCONSIN 1 800-833-7637
GEORGIA 1 800 229 5746
WASHINGTON STATE 1-877-833-6341
NEVADA 1-888-326-5658
MINNESOTA 1-877-627-3848

Sweden has completed a Speech-to-Speech Trial.  Australia now has a
permanent service. For Swedish information e-mail: [log in to unmask]
(Inga Svanfeldt) and for Australian information e-mail:
[log in to unmask]
(Tom McCaul)





----- Original Message -----
From: Denise D. Goodman <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, December 13, 1999 5:10 AM
Subject: Re: Aging and working with CP


> Gee Bob- I can't imagine the stamina and patience it takes to work for any
> State agency for 25 years - (and that is Without any physical limitations!
> :D )  Reading your post makes me feel like maybe I gave up working too
early.
>  I haven't worked in almost 4 years.  I still dream about work.  I often
miss
> it, but then when I'm feeling so crummy I wonder how I'd be able to
function
> on the job.  How do you do it? - Denise
>