Talk:Telecommunications relay service

TRS capitalization
Why are the T, R, and S capitalized? Michael Hardy 01:11, 25 Jun 2004 (UTC)

A: User:Mark Rejhon Google says so. Every search result of "telecommunications relay service" comes as Telecommunications Relay Service in search results. Same reason we capitallize "Internet Service Provider" or "University of Waterloo" or "White House".

Removed Scamming Link
I removed the link regarding scamming. I'm a former Communications Assistant for one of the TRS providers. The fact that it is a scam, fits within the system of Relay. Relay Operators are supposed to be transparent, "human phone lines," Phone lines an take scams as well. This site was more a discussion about scamming than about the relay service. The scamming just happens to happen via the relay service. Cliffb 03:26, 11 February 2006 (UTC)
 * I would expect that there would be at least a note on such scamming in this article. Like it or not, the fact is that TRS is used all too often to commit that sort of scam, and the characteristics of TRS make the scam that much more effective to those uneducated in regards to it.  And what is an encyclopedia for, if not education?  Reading what you removed, I agree that it was not exactly NPOV, and a forum isn't the best citation for such a sweeping statement, but the topic souldn't be sweeped entirely under the rug.  It's existence is unfortunate, but definite - just ask any small business owner or operator.  --Reverend Loki 22:20, 12 April 2006 (UTC)
 * Agreed. A small token mention about the use of relay services for scamming, is necessary.  As a deaf user, I have witnessed many small businesses refusing to take relay calls because they've been defrauded through relay.  For many businesses, a large percentage of incoming relay calls are always scam calls.  Ignoring relay calls is convenient for these businesses, and hurts all of us legitimate deaf users.  Businesses who got defrauded, sometimes look on Wikipedia and find out what a relay service is and then need to learn all the information why relay services are used for scamming, so they can begin accepting relay calls carefully again.  The scamming part, already mentioned, should stay albiet in an NPOV way.Mdrejhon (talk) 21:39, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

Added usage/fraud info
I felt that fraud complaints generated a big enough controversy to bear note in the article. I revamped the "Usage" section to include this information, as well as links in "External Links," to relevant articles. I think it works well enough to add important information without going to hearsay (e.g., the "scamming" forum) but still may need some readability cleanup.

A point on sensitivity
Since deaf people mainly rely on sign language and written words, they are also (just like us-hearing people) sensitive to words that are/may-be offensive to them. The words impaired and impairment is/maybe offensive to the deaf community (well, for that matter, those who can read english). The proper terms that should be used are "Speech-Disabled" and "Hard-of-Hearing". Please do not compromise the neutrality of the article for "technicalities" the words "speech-disabled" may have the same meaning and/or effect as "speech-impaired" but the latter one maybe/is offensive to the deaf/speech-disabled community. I should stress that "Offensive statements and words" (unless, of course, when used a reference to an opinion or is used here in talk page) are NOT NEUTRAL and therefore, violates the rules of this forum. Rebskii 19:24, 3 October 2006 (UTC)rebskii 10-03-2006

no offense... but if a person dies, you can say he/she passed away... but in reality that person is dead. If a person is deaf, you can say that she/she is "hard-of-hearing" but in reality that person is deaf. Deaf is a dictionary term that is not innately offensive, unless you, as an individual, take it that way. Wikipedia is a place for factual information not euphemisms. 98.193.121.227 (talk) 21:06, 5 April 2008 (UTC)


 * If a person is deaf, you can say that she/she is "hard-of-hearing" but in reality that person is deaf. -- incorrect. Hearing loss exists on a continuum. People that are Hard-of-Hearing (abbreviated HoH within United States Deaf Culture) are not deaf.
 * Within Deaf Culture in the United States, members primarily identify as "Deaf" (intentional capitalization), "deaf", "late-deafened", and "Hard-of-Hearing" (HoH). Tommygchild (talk) 04:12, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

Heading Capitalization
I know the MOS style, but I think the TRS industry standard should override the Wikipedia Style Guide. Also taking a deeper look at it probably all of the dashes should come out as well. I'll revert the Capitalization change, as well as remove the dashes in a couple days if no one objects.

I also looked up some examples of the TRS industry lexicon. They're pretty consistent on capitalizing the service types. The Examples: Some Examples Relay South Dakota Relay Alaska Sprint VRS ATT Relay Hamilton Relay Verizon Relay (formerly MCI relay) Nordia Relay Sorenson Relay —Cliffb 07:47, 31 October 2006 (UTC)


 * If industry standards say "Speech-To-Speech" or "Speech-to-Speech" should have capital initials, then I think it's consistent with Wikipedia's style manual to capitalize them. But what about


 * Types of service available
 * Fraudulent uses
 * Some websites

....etc.? If I find incorrect capitals in things like those, it makes me think the other capitals were put there for the same reason, which conflicts with the style manual. Instead of a simple revert, could we have some discrimination between capitals-for-a-reason and capitals-because-they're-section headings/title phrases/just words/whatever? Michael Hardy 19:29, 2 November 2006 (UTC)


 * Fixed. Of course more accurate editing would be helpful if one noted that the same exact capitalization was utilized in the text of the sections as well as the headings, although I appreciate the impetuous to reexamine this article for revisions..  —Cliffb 20:23, 2 November 2006 (UTC)

Quebec province
I removed the word province as it is not in common usage to say Quebec provence as opposed to Quebec. Nealc9999 05:33, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

Diagram and Image Request
I dispute the replaceability of Wow-sprintRelaySolutions.gif, Diagram tty.gif, VCODirect.JPG, Image:Diagram hco.gif, Diagram sts.gif, Illustration-telebraille.gif, CapTel how it works.jpg and CapTel_jk-usb.jpg. I have added a irreplaceable fair use rationale with a reason on the image description pages, as well as the image talk pages. In addition, although CapTel_jk-usb.jpg is not currently replaceable, I have added a request on Wikipedia:Requested pictures and discussed it in its talk page. Any attempts to replace the other fair use images or add any images to the article are also appreciated. Taric25 18:22, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Leaving this article
I'm happy where I got this article to, and I'm deciding to leave it to develop without me watching it. So I'm going to take it off my watchlist. If you'd like my opinion on something about this article, please drop me a note on my talk page.. —Cliffb 05:30, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Images invited
The article presently has no images. If you are a user of TRS or involved with TRS I invite you to consider taking a few pictures and donating them. The "Upload file" toolbox link contains links to pages with relevant instructions and policies. (SEWilco 03:54, 16 July 2007 (UTC))
 * I've added an image. Mdrejhon (talk) 22:06, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

Cap-Tel, CapTel and WebCapTel: trademarked products, not generic names
There's a whole section on captioned phones that uses "Cap-Tel" and "CapTel" as a generic name for captioned phones, and "WebCapTel" as a generic name for a web captioning service. They're not: they are all trademarked products of one company.

Two changes need to be made (I'll make them when/if I have time):


 * "Cap-Tel", "CapTel" and "WebCapTel" need to be isolated into product descriptions, and the rest of the text made generic


 * Mention needs to be made of competing products (e.g. CaptionCall, and a number of web-based products)

-- Dan Griscom (talk) 12:15, 22 October 2011 (UTC)

Unsourced, unencyclopedic content
The following paragraph is entirely unsourced and reads like original research. Besides being poorly written and almost unintelligible in places, it's also decidedly unencyclopedic, even borderline facetious in tone. I suspect it may have been plagiarized from another source (http://www.scribd.com/doc/191140092/Early-Clues-LLC-Employee-Handbook-MASTER), but it's hard to tell which came first: the Wikipedia entry or this handbook. If anyone could clarify this issue, I think it would pave the way for an improvement of this section. I am moving the paragraph here for now. Frankly, I think the section reads better without the paragraph and nothing of real substance is lost. --Nonstopdrivel (talk) 03:37, 16 August 2014 (UTC)
 * Relay operators are legally required to relay all communication between the parties without making any judgments, and if an operator does anything to contravene this duty such as warning the hearing user of a possible prank/scam, the operator would likely be terminated from his/her job and face legal penalties. Therefore, pranksters abusing the service can force and enslave the relay operators to say whatever the pranksters want, even profanity or terroristic threats, and there is nothing the operators or the relay providers can do about it—the operators must speak every word faithfully. In fact, the relay companies profit by servicing prank and scam calls because they are paid the service fees by the government for doing so (even though they don't have a choice). The pranksters use the relay operators as their personal voice puppets. Some pranksters have ways to be conferenced into the voice call (such as by placing a three-way call) to listen to and record the voice side of the conversation, while they simultaneously act as the typing TTY user. Some relay calls are both scams and pranks simultaneously, such as placing phony orders for on-location services such as taxicab, locksmith, pizza-delivery, etc. against an unsuspecting victim. One variant of the relay prank is for entertainment purposes, when there is no call-receiving victim at all, but rather the prankster calls him/herself by relay and uses the operator as a narrator for things like poems, song lyrics that the prankster plays music to, raps, etc., in which the prankster records the narration and posts it on websites like YouTube. In some relay pranks the pranksters force the operators to self-referentially insult themselves, cuss out their supervisors, speak ill of their workplace, etc., which sometimes confuses the operators and causes them to ask for supervisor assistance. Operators are usually trained well enough (or inured to the work they do) that they dispassionately dictate everything in prank calls call without cracking up regardless of how ridiculous the content of what they are saying may be.

External links modified
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Proposed Merger With 7-1-1
I feel that the article on 7-1-1 should be merged into this article. There is considerable overlap between the two topics. I don't think 7-1-1 needs it's own article, but I do think the material could easily be added to this article.CircleGirl (talk) 17:52, 6 December 2018 (UTC)