Telephone captioning services?

[nbommade]

Has anyone used telephone captioning services at captel.com? I would like to know how well it works, especially in a work situation (conference calls etc) and with a smartphone (iPhone 4).

Nagendra

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[carnutfl]

I've never used it, but the service is available free in Florida. When I spoke with the person who distributes the telephones for this service, they talked me out of it and instead provided me with an amplified telephone. She explained that to use the captioned service, the call must be placed through a third party operator. First, the special operator needs to be called. The operator hears the words from the party on the other end and types the words so that they appear on the phone you are using. Quite a delay in the conversation and not usefull in a business situation

[ljjehl]

I use it in a work environment all the time. Yes, it does have a small delay up to 4 seconds (due to captionist voice recognition constraints), but you can work around it by delay tactics such as saying "uhm...." to let them know you are there and seem like you are trying to think of what to say. Once you get talking with them, you can explain that you are on a live captioning phone to help you hear, so they can understand why you are delaying. It's up to you, but this works great for me.

[ljjehl]

Originally Posted by carnutfl

I've never used it, but the service is available free in Florida. When I spoke with the person who distributes the telephones for this service, they talked me out of it and instead provided me with an amplified telephone. She explained that to use the captioned service, the call must be placed through a third party operator. First, the special operator needs to be called. The operator hears the words from the party on the other end and types the words so that they appear on the phone you are using. Quite a delay in the conversation and not usefull in a business situation

By the way, the Captel phone can be used both ways, as a standard amplified phone AND a realtime captioned machine.

[Hask12]

I have it and I use it. It's not perfect but it serves it's purpose. There is a delay not real long but long enough that the other party will wonder why you are not responding right away. Also sometimes words are misinterpreted, obviously the quality of the text is determined by person doing the typing. Which leads to another problem and that's security. There is a third person listening in to your conversation so you might want to be careful what you say or what information you are providing.

[CryMeARiver]

I use Cap-Tel for all my necessary calls related to appointments, customer service, etc. I always explain that I'm using a captioned phone and that there is a short delay if I need to read the captions. It's not a good use for casual conversation because the delay is off-putting. It's been a life saver in many instances. If I'm on the road, I use the CapTel website. This means you have to have a laptop/Ipad and a phone. There is going to be a new release of a cell phone...I think it's android, which will allow you to just use your cell phone without the need of a computer. It's also very good for record keeping because you can copy the transcript.

[WilliamPenson]

Yup! I have used it. IT really helps to understand what caller says.

[Laura B]

I use captel for my iphone.
I do not use it at work so I have no experience there.
I feel it works pretty well on the personal level.
Works well when I need to call the doctors, make appointments and such.
I do explain that I am using captions, so they understand the delay in some of my responses.

BTW, I have also tried ClearCaptions which is also alvailable for the iphone, but I feel Captel is much faster, the delay time shorter, and although there is a slight problem with the spelling at times,
all in all, it is a better service.

Laura

[rkoziol7]

I suppose I will be waiting for a long time to have such services in my country (Poland) :/