People with hearing loss, who have difficulty hearing sounds, and Deaf people, who cannot hear at all, have difficulty using the telephone.
This is understandable, since telephone communication is based on sound, and communication is much more difficult on the telephone than in person, since there are no clues other than sound.
Therefore, a telephone relay service can connect people who can hear and people who cannot hear over the phone.
Let's take a closer look at how the telephone relay service works.
Sign language services are summarized in "For services using Japanese Sign Language and sign language interpretation services".
Please refer to it.
What can you do with the Telephone Relay Service?
Telephone relay service is a service in which an operator converts information into voice information and delivers it to a person who has difficulty hearing or speaking, through sign language or chat.
Those who can sign communicate with the operator using sign language, and those who cannot sign can communicate with the operator using text via chat.
The operator then conveys the content received through sign language or text information to the other party in words.
Can be used 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
The telephone relay service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, not just during the day.
This makes it possible to use the service even in situations where you suddenly need to make a call.
For example, when you suddenly feel ill and need to call the emergency services.
It will be very convenient to communicate by phone what used to be communicated by fax or e-mail.
Situations in which the telephone relay service is used
In what situations can the telephone relay service be used?
First of all, it can be used to call ordinary telephones, so it is possible to contact both the hard-of-hearing person to the hearing person and the hearing person to the hard-of-hearing person.
It can also be used for emergency calls to the police, fire department, etc.
Then there are the inquiries to companies that still only accept phone calls.
Sometimes, when you inquire by e-mail because you cannot make a phone call, the answer may be to call back between 10:00 and 17:00.
The telephone relay service can be used in such cases.
How to use the telephone relay service
To use the telephone relay service, you must register in advance.
Registration for use of the Phone Relay Service is done through the application.
More information can be found on the Phone Relay Service website.
Please click here to download the documents related to the registration.
Services using the Telephone Relay Service
The Telephone Relay Service is a service that allows people who use sign language interpretation to talk on the phone with people who cannot use sign language.
A sign language phone is a service that uses the functionality of such a telephone relay service.
Sign language phones are public telephones that can be used with sign language.
Although there are still only a few places where they are installed, the function of the telephone relay service can be used without prior registration.
Please refer to "What is a sign language phone? Free public phones in Japan that can be used to talk in sign language." for more information about sign language phones.
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