By Kate Doherty
It’s not uncommon for us as RVers to be in a campground or RV park with poor cell reception. Many of us, too, have hearing aids. When I’m on the phone without wearing earphones, I have difficulty hearing some callers when the air conditioner or heater is blowing. Perhaps your hearing isn’t up to par anymore, either, and you can’t discern dialect differences, especially when background noise is amplified in our traveling homes. If you have trouble hearing someone on the phone, whatever the circumstance, CaptionCall might be just what you need.
What’s CaptionCall?
Meet CaptionCall, founded in 2011. Think of it as an “on-demand” note-taker that records the caller’s words as they are talking. And guess what? This audio captioning program, telephone set or mobile app and support are completely free. We can thank the Federal Communications Commission for approving a provider under the American Disabilities Act. It’s paid for by a Telecommunications Relay Services (TRS) fraction tax on all phone providers nationwide. This tax has helped hundreds of thousands of hearing-impaired individuals with this captioning service, just like television captioning does.
What about my privacy?
You’re probably wondering about privacy. What if your doctor’s office calls with confidential information? Or perhaps you’re talking to your hometown banker and don’t want anyone knowing your finances. Well, this program allows you to “turn on” or “turn off” this service with the push of a button. And, just like your cell phone or handset, you can “mute” the conversation at any time. You selectively choose whether to save the caller’s words. Saving the text comes in handy when you need to remember an appointment or date for future reference. But, again, you control this.
Like most of us, I am concerned about privacy issues and have a plain ol’ “it’s nobody’s business” attitude. That’s when I was reassured by Tyler Kropf, Regional Director of CaptionCall, who manages the western half of the United States, that you are completely in control of this scribing service.
Accordingly, the FCC and Health and Human Services recognize privacy and have jointly addressed this issue. They have deemed communications assistants involved in captioning services as a conduit to the parties and fall under the Telecommunications Relay Services (TRS). Therefore it does not violate HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act).
How I learned about CaptionCall
I first learned of this service when I met Jordan Woffinden, the Arizona Regional Manager of CaptionCall at an informal social where he was guest speaking to RV park guests about this program. It wasn’t until I heard Jordan answer specific questions for guests interested in this service that I fully grasped this “no brainer” program.
To satisfy my curiosity, I followed up with a conference call with both Tyler and Jordan, who reaffirmed this free service is available in all fifty states. Until voice recognition or ASR (automatic speech recognition) technology advances to completely capture the nuances in vocalized speech between age and gender, speed and tones, contractions and dialect, etc., captioning services will revoice to transcribe the caller’s words.
According to hear-it.org, more than 35 million people suffer from hearing loss. Can CaptionCall help you or someone you know? You can read more or sign up for CaptionCall here.
Note: CaptionCall is available in the United States only.
##RVT987