711 for TTY Relay

Southern States Follow Hawaii

People who travel to Maryland of other southern states will soon have to remember only 711 to make a call through TTY relay

Maryland, Delaware, and other southern states are ready to implement the 711 TTY Relay System. With 711 relay, people can dial three quick numbers for the relay service. Hawaii was the first state to use the easy-to-remember 711 number for the TTY Relay System. Hawaii switched to 1-711 TTY relay service and 1-511 for voice/TTY relay service several years ago.

The U.S. government, through the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), permits states to use 711 for relay, said Karen Peltz-Strauss, an attorney for the National Association of the Deaf. But the FCC does not require states to implement this system.

"It is up to each state," she said. "Each state and each phone company must decide if it wants to use 711."

Bell Atlantic is the phone company setting up the TTY relay access, said Peltz-Strauss. In two years, Bell Atlantic hopes to set up 711 in the New England states, too. Bell Atlantic is the first phone company to set up a 711 TTY Relay System in the continental United States.

Peltz-Strauss emphasized that 711 will not replace the 911 system for deaf and hard of hearing people. The 911 emergency number is still required to have TTY access. They are two different systems, she said.

Captions To Increase

U.S. Raises Goal for Videos

The United States government, through the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), wants all videos to be closed captioned for deaf and hard of hearing people. In September, the FCC raised the closed captioning goal for videos from 95% to 100%. The FCC also required closed captions for Spanish programming, with a 12-year transition period for some programming.

School on Web

New ASL Program Receives Coverage

Jovanna Naitale, a student at Laurent Clerc Elementary School, in Tucson, Arizona, can find a story about herself and her classmates on the World Wide Web. Jovanna's school was profiled in the newspaper and then put onto the Web last year.

At Laurent Clerc Elementary, students study and learn in American Sign Language (ASL). Teachers use ASL to develop English skills. Some of the students in the program are hearing; sometimes they are taught separately from the deaf students.