5.1 Results by Total Calls Made
5.2 Results by Quality of Interaction
5.3 Other Findings

Results by Total Calls Made

A total of 50 calls were made to 40 organizations. Only 18 organizations had a responsive TTY. As mentioned previously in this report, some organizations had more than one TTY number listed; as long as one of these numbers was responsive, the organization was deemed responsive.

Figure 6: Final Results

Banks fared better overall than the other two sectors in terms of listing their TTY numbers: 42% of the banking institutions that list a telephone number also list a TTY number, compared to 17% of the communications organizations and 32% of transportation organizations. The banks also fared better in terms of responsiveness, since approximately 75% of their listed TTYs were responsive, compared to 18% for the communications organizations and 48% for the transportation companies.

Results by Quality of Interaction

As mentioned previously in this report, some organizations had more than one TTY number listed; in this case, only the best results for Quality of Interaction were retained.

The maximum score for any element was 5 points (“Very Satisfied”), and the minimum was 1 (“Very Dissatisfied”). A score of 0 was given when it was not possible to assess the TTY service, for example if there was an automatic TTY answer from the organization, but no further communication after the initial greeting, as if the TTY was not attended. This situation happened in two instances.

The experts who conducted the testing of the TTY numbers found that the majority of federally regulated organizations that have a responsive TTY offered satisfactory services. For the service to be satisfactory, the person operating the TTY had to be courteous; able to control the call from a technology perspective; able to offer relevant information; and able to make proper use of TTY etiquette.

Figure 7: Overall Quality of Interaction

Although the overall average is above a “Neutral” score (3), there are some discrepancies per sector. As depicted in the following diagram, the communications sector fared better than the other two sectors, but one must bear in mind that there were only two respondents in those sectors.

Figure 8: Quality of Interaction per Sector

Other Findings

While developing the sample and conducting the test calls, the experts made these additional observations:

• Some organizations incorrectly listed an advertised TTY number (e.g. the TTY was actually a voice or fax number, the BRS comment line, or the Bell line for persons using a regular telephone and attempting to relay to a TTY).
• The relay service number (711) was listed for some organizations, without an indication of the actual number to call.
• Some TTY lines started their greeting with a voice message to tell hearing users that they have called a TTY line—however when TTY users notice the use of a voice message, they normally hang up because they think they have reached a voice line. This practice is counter-productive.
• Some TTYs seemed to be working properly, but the lack of interaction pointed to the possibility that the line was not attended.
• Some operators do not know the TTY protocol such as the use of GA (“go ahead”) or SK (“stop keying”) nor how to break a persistent scramble.