Caption Relay office visit

May Wood (pictured) reports:

Charles and I visited the CaptionRelay office in Glasgow to find out about the new captioning phone. We found it fairly simple to operate and the captioning was very acceptable.

Plug it into landline socket or router (if landline within Broadband package), and to internet in order to access CaptionRelay’s server for captioning, set up your preferences on the touch screen then you can lift the handset/press speakerphone, tap your contact, tap the green query button to indicate you wish captioning, and the ‘call assistance’ is ready by the time the call is answered. Again, just tap for captioning when you answer a call.

The captioning software on their server is up-to-date, I found it similar to a good STTR on Zoom. It’s useful if you miss out on nattering with family and friends, need to make landline calls, especially if duties at work require using a landline phone as it is just the same connection as any other phone, or perhaps something people might provide to elderly parents/family with whom they struggle to keep in touch by phone….

It is expensive – £250 for phone and £35 monthly for service – but current offer of free phone is helpful. Charles and I asked lots of question, and plan to return for further investigation soon. We shall provide a more detailed review after that. If we can, we’ll answer any current questions, please drop them into the Teams chat.