ENABLING COMMUNICATIONS FOR THE DEAF WITHIN A PBX

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DESCRIPTION: The goal of the proposed research and development is to show how TTY communications for the deaf can be enabled on every phone line entering an organization and on every phone extension through software techniques and without specialized hardware. The proposed technology will allow a deaf caller to dial the same phone numbers as hearing callers and be routed to the same person, department, automated call response system, or call center queue. In the Phase I the R&D team designed a software driver for a standard high density telephone board and added TTY Baudot and "Turbo-Code" support. The team also demonstrated CTI (computer telephony integration). In the Phase II, new techniques to automatically detect incoming text calls will be shown. An example task will be to allow a hearing person to answer a TTY call on any phone extension. A simple call transfer will then cause this text call to be routed to the computer next to this phone. The needs of call centers will be addressed, so that TTY calls can be accepted and can route to the next available call agent. Lastly, it will be shown how text calls from browsers used by the deaf can be accommodated in call centers. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATION: Not Available