Chapter DMBM510500
| Published date | 29 April 2016 |
| Record Number | DMBM510500 |
| Court | HM Revenue & Customs |
| Issuer | HM Revenue & Customs |
Text Relay, formerly known as Typetalk is a service provided by BT. It brings the benefits of the telephone network to deaf, hard of hearing and speech impaired people by relaying a conversation between people who use textphones and people who use voice phones.
Inbound callsWhen customers use this service they will call us by textphone, using the BT TextDirect prefix 18001 followed by the full telephone number. A Text Relay operator joins the line to relay the conversation the customer types their part of the conversation. The Text Relay operator reads out exactly what’s typed to the hearing person. The hearing person replies saying ‘go ahead’ after speaking (this tells the operator they’ve finished speaking and the Text Relay operator types exactly what’s said). The customer can then read the response on their textphone display panel.
If you receive a call made via the Text Relay service you should deal with it in the usual way. The fact that the Text Relay operator is speaking on behalf of the caller does not affect any verification procedures that are in place in your business stream.
Deaf, hard of hearing and speech impaired customers don’t need to contact us via the Text Relay Service if there is no authorised third party. They may do so through a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter. BSL is the recognised language of the deaf community in the UK and is recognised as a language in UK law.
If you receive a call from someone acting as a BSL interpreter for a customer who uses BSL (for example, a family member or a friend), you should deal with it in the usual way. Again, the fact that the BSL interpreter is speaking on behalf of the caller does not affect any verification procedures that are in place in your business stream. You should ask the interpreter to ‘vocalise’ both sides of the conversation. That means asking them to say what they are signing to the customer and then repeating what the customer signs back to them. This is so we have a verbal record of our conversation with the customer. You should also ask the interpreter’s name, address, relationship to the customer and membership of any professional body and note this on our records.
We need to adopt the correct approach using our PDRS training and treat every customer with empathy and tact.
Outgoing callsTo make an outgoing call, you need to dial:
- 9 for the outside line
- 18002 - the National BT link number
- the customer’s full telephone number.
When you talk, the Text Relay...
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