Video Relay Service
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A Video Relay Service (VRS) is a telecommunication service that enables real-time two-way communication between deaf, hard of hearing and speech-disabled individuals using a videophone and telephone users. In America, the service is regulated by the FCC.
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[edit] How it works
- An individual that communicates by American Sign Language, or another mode of manual communication, such as Signing Exact English, Pidgin Signed English, Linguistics of Visual English, uses a videophone or other camera-enabled device, such as a webcam to connect via broadband Internet to a Video Relay Service.
- The caller is routed to a sign language interpreter, known as a Video Interpreter (VI). The VI is in front of a camera or videophone.
- The VRS user gives the VI the number to dial, as well as any special dialing instructions.
- The VI places the call and interprets in normal mode as a neutral, non-participating third-party. Anything that the phone user speaks is signed to the video user, and anything signed by the video user is spoken to the phone user.
- Once the call is over, the caller can make another call(s) or hang up with the interpreter.
Telephone users can contact a Deaf, Hard-of-Hearing, or Speech-Disabled person via VRS. To initiate a VRS call the hearing person calls the VRS, and are connected to video interpreters who contact videophone users directly.
Some VRS services also offer:
- Voice Carry Over: Using their own voice instead of the interpreter's voice
- Hearing Carry Over: Using their own hearing instead of the interpreter's hearing
- Language Preference: Informing the interpreter to use either American Sign Language or Signed English
- Connecting to a sign language interpreter that can interpret into other languages, such as Spanish.
[edit] History of VRS
[edit] Building support for trials
Ed Bosson of the Texas Public Utility Commission (PUC) envisioned Deaf people communicating with videophones more than 10 years before the FCC mandated it nationwide. Ed contacted Mark Seeger of Sprint Relay and discussed the possibilities. Mark contacted Sprint technicians to see if Ed’s vision was feasible. They reported that it was, so Ed brought the idea to the Texas PUC.
It took Ed a long time to be able to convince PUC and got some help from a lawyer in interpreting. First, Ed convinced his supervisor and then one-by-one the Commissioners were convinced that video relay should become a part of statewide Telecom Relay Service offerings. They authorized Ed to manage the first video relay service trials. Sprint was the first service provider to conduct the Texas video relay tests. Bosson would later receive national awards from Smithsonian Computerworld and TDI for his work with VRS.
[edit] Initial trials
In 1995, the first trial was ran by Sprint in Austin and was limited to four public call centers.
The second trial occurred in 1997 and served ten cities in Texas. At that point, Sprint and Hanwave Interpreting partnered to provide service. Jon Hodson of Sorenson Communications worked with Ed Bosson during early stages and provided video conferencing software during the VRS trial in Texas. (At this point the service was called "Video Relay Interpreting" or VRI, which a name that now refers to Video Remote Interpreting. Linda Nelson is credited with changing the term from VRI to VRS.) Later, Hanwave Interpreting Service was bought by Communication Services for the Deaf, and Sprint expanded their relay subcontract to include VRS services in addition to the established TRS services.
In 1998 Washington and Texas tested VRS statewide, with Texas providing VRS via the Internet to Washington state.
[edit] Nationwide implementation
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In 2000, VRS officially became available throughout the state of Texas. In 2002, the FCC allowed for the reimbursement of interstate VRS providers via the interstate TRS fund administration, becoming the second country after Sweden to federally subsidize VRS nationwide.
[edit] VRS regulation in the United States
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is the regulatory body for VRS in the United States. In addition to overseeing VRS, the FCC also oversees Telecommunications Relay Services (TRS), from which the VRS regulatory framework has evolved from. The FCC oversees TRS and VRS as a result of their mandate in the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) to facilitate the provisions equal access to individuals with disabilities over the telephone network.
Funding for VRS is provided via Interstate Telecommunications Relay Fund which was created by the FCC originally to fund TRS services. The monetary resources for the fund come from telephone bill payers in the United States. The fund is currently overseen by National Exchange Carriers Association (NECA).
In addition to regulating the funding of VRS, the FCC regulates the standards that VRS companies and their employees must follow in handle calls. These regulations help to ensure that VRS calls are handled appropriately and ethically.
The FCC issued rulings include:
- The time it takes an interpreter to answer an incoming VRS call. As of July 1, 2006, VRS providers must answer 80% of calls within two and a half minutes. Starting on January 1, 2007 VRS providers must answer 80% of calls within two minutes.
- As of January 1, 2006, all VRS providers are required to stay open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
- Reimbursement of VRS Video Mail. If a Hearing person called a Sign Language user, but there was no answer, the VI signs a message and deliver it to the Sign Language user's e-mail, similar to an answering machine. Previously this service was not reimbursed and the cost was absorbed by the VRS provider.
- All VRS providers must not “call back” when a customer hangs up before a VRS call is placed.
- VRS providers must only process calls that either originate or terminate in the US or its territories. For example, a person in Canada may use a VRS service in the United States to call a person in the United States, but not another person in Canada.
[edit] VRS outside the United States
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[edit] Sweden
Sweden was the first country to implement a public VRS fully subsidized by the government.
[edit] United Kingdom
The British Deaf Association (BDA) allows people who use British Sign Language (BSL) to communicate with Hearing people and vice-versa through the BDA-CSD VRS or SIGN VRS services. To launch this service, BDA entered into a partnership with Communication Services for the Deaf. The service was initially operated as a free trial. [1]
[edit] Current issues in VRS administration
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- Numbering standardization competing VRS providers have incompatible numbering schemes.
- Interconnection between the IP-based videophone network and the worldwide telephone network.
