Federal Relay Service offerings

Among the Federal Relay Service's current telephone services are:

Directory assistance. Gender identification. Hearing carryover, which allows speech-disabled or mute users with normal hearing to listen to another person and then type a response, which is read to the other person by a communications assistant. English-to-Spanish and Spanish-to-English translation. wo-line voice carryover, which allows the hearing-impaired caller who is comfortable speaking to use one line for speaking directly to a hearing person while the other line is used to receive the operator's typed responses from the hearing person. Among the services planned to be added to FRS are:

International relay. A video relay service to allow deaf or hearing-impaired people who use American Sign Language to communicate via a desktop computer with video capability. The caller and an ASL interpreter see each other via video, and the interpreter relays the message to the hearing person. Internet relay, which will allow people who don't want to carry text-enabled telephones while traveling to make a call through an Internet site with the help of a relay operator.