Meeting the goal of providing functionally equivalent telecommunications access.

"Exciting technology for those of us who are deaf and hard of hearing was recently approved by the FCC. Called Internet Protocol Captioned Telephone (IP CT), it is an improved version of CapTel that will allow us to utilize a wider range of existing telephone and computer equipment, thereby increasing our telephone access.

All you need are voice and Internet connections. Like a traditional call, the user talks to the other party, and can hear the responses. The difference is that a behind-the-scenes operator transcribes the other party's words into captions. Now, with IP CT, you'll be able to make a VCO call over the Internet.

A much larger group of individuals with disabilities will also benefit from this service, as the text size and font, colors and brightness can all be modified. Captions can be manipulated on the screen, and varying amounts of text can be available at any one time.

In addition, IP CT will equalize the playing field in the workplace. A fact sheet submitted by Ultratec -- who created CapTel as well as the IP version -- to the FCC lists the advantages: no analog phone lines are necessary, an existing telephone and IP connection are all that's required, and all the features and functions of the business telephone system are available to the user, making access to the telephone equal to that of other employees. Both incoming and outgoing calls can be captioned.

The FCC ruling was issued in response to a petition by the Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA) and 35 other consumer organizations on behalf of people nationwide with hearing loss. In announcing the ruling, the commissioners praised IP CT as "a giant step forward" for people with hearing loss, noting the potential to improve employment, social, and economic opportunities for people who are hard of hearing. Several commissioners also praised the transparent nature of the technology as meeting the goal of providing functionally equivalent telecommunications access."

from i711.com