While it would be impossible to anticipate all situations that would be encountered by those with hearing loss, each person’s impairment would be handled individually to determine the proper and most helpful means of accommodating that person’s disability.

The most widely known service would be Telecommunication Relay Services available through our local phone service providers. These providers would be Verizon and AT&T. This is a free service but the normal rates for the call would still apply. The service would allow for a hearing person to relay speech to a non-hearing person via a Communication Assistant (CA) and for a non-hearing person to send a text message to a CA to have them relay the spoken word back to the hearing person.

Dialing 711 from most phones within New Jersey would allow you to access the relay services throughout the country. While dialing 711 is the easiest way to reach the service, a person using a TTY (teletypewriter) can dial 800-852-7899 directly and voice callers may dial 800-852-7897 directly to reach the service.

From the university’s campus phones, a user would dial “3” for the outside line and then 711, to reach the relay services.

Other telephone support services that can be made available to the impaired would be:

• Receiver amplifiers
• Ringer volume adjustment
• Visual ringers
• Assistance from Telephone & Voice Services Office (NOTE: Our campus operators are not trained as qualified Relay Service agents.)

The number to reach Telephone & Voice Services would be on the Metropolitan Campus at x7390.