Scientific and technological reports

Bridging the Gap?
Access to telecommunciations for all people

CHAPTER 2.

EVOLUTION OF TELECOM SERVICES AND EQUIPMENT FOR PEOPLE WITH LIMITED ABILITY

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Information and communication technology in general has been developing at a frantic pace over the last decade. It is our intention in this chapter to take a look at how specific telematic services and equipment for disabled and older people have evolved over this period.

Some examples of telecommunications services and equipment for people with limited ability is presented covering most of the different areas (personal communication support of daily living, access to information) although it is well beyond the scope of this book to be able to include all existing products and services on the market in this area.

A detailed analysis will be given for telecommunications relay services for which a recent survey has been carried out. This will be compared to the results of the 1989 COST 219 survey.

2.1 General Overview of Situation between 1989 and 2001
Jan Ekberg, Julio Abascal, Klaus Fellbaum, Leonor Pereira, Patrick Roe

2.1.1 Introduction

The overall telecommunications environment has undergone massive change over the last decade with the erstwhile state-run monopolies having to adapt to the liberalised free-market. Despite the recent downturn in telecommunication and technology shares on the world stock markets, the intensive development has continued relentlessly with the launching of new products onto the market with ever shorter production cycles from concept to marketplace. Within this context, it is proposed in this chapter to give some examples of the development of telecommunications services and equipment for people with limited ability.

At the beginning of the 1990's we had communications and telematic assistive devices such as environmental control, speech synthesisers, Bliss communication devices, mouse emulators for PC and Macintosh, text telephones, the first portable text telephones that could be connected to either the handset or the telephone socket, big fonts for computer screens, Braille lines and communicators.

Only basic text/speech speech/text relay services were available in most countries ten years ago and environmental control was available in the area covered by the examples under the three main headings "Personal communication", "Support of Daily Living" and "Access to Information". Even where solutions did exist they have been very much improved due to technical development.

2.1.2 Personal Communication

Personal communication within the general population has developed at a frantic pace over the past decade. This is especially true for mobile telephony and communication over the Internet. Within this overall context it is not surprising to find that equipment and services in this area have also developed for people with limited ability, albeit with a certain delay.

At the beginning of 1990, speech recognition could already be used in desktop computers but the training of the devices was tedious and the failure rate 5-10%. At the beginning of 2000 mobile devices with easy to train speech recognisers (for some 100 words) and negligible failure rates were on the market. Bliss boards (see figures 2-6 & 2-7) have in the same period become mobile with displays that can still be used in clear sunshine and the device can be used as a remote control for home equipment.

Relay services have also developed from systems where the operator just typed the text version of the speech into systems using Velotype for immediate text production and speech through especially designed terminals for those who have become deaf at a later stage in life. Also sign language relay services have become available. The relay centre with automatic translation between different text telephone protocols in addition to human supported relay services will automatically be connected if a call from a text telephone needs these facilities.

As already mentioned, mobile phones developed very much during the 1990's and a lot of applications for disabled people can now be found. Some research has been performed in order to design mobile phones that would be easy to use for older people. The products have normally not been sold as gerontechnology products but mainstream products that can also be used by older people. The mobile telephone Short Message Service (SMS) has become very popular amongst youngsters and gives young hearing impaired people the possibility to communicate with other youngsters on an equal footing. The SMS as well as the increasing popularity of the e-mail have reduced the usage of text telephones.

Another positive development worth mentioning is that the V.18 standard has been used in many new text telephones and also on mobile versions.

Another general point worth mentioning here is the problem of interference between hearing aids and mobile phones [COST 219, Roe (Ed.)] that has been causing access problems to mobile phones to some of the 6 million hearing aid users across Europe. This problem still exists for a high proportion of hearing aid users [Hearing Concern]. It can in some cases be remedied with the use of auxiliary devices such as the Nokia Loopset or the Orange SoundMate (see below under "Mobile text telephony").

Some specific examples of equipment and services in the field of personal communication are given below.

Mobile phones

Figure 2-1a. Benefon's Personal Navigation Phone

Figure 2-1b. Benefon's Professional telematics phone (track and SOS button view)

The MOBILE RESCUE PHONE being developed in the TIDE-MORE project in the Telematics Application Programme is an example of good practice. MORE is based upon the Global System for Mobile Telecommunications (GSM), the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), Geographical Information System (GIS), here a call centre, and the Global Positioning System (GPS). The GPS is a localisation feature that enables the potential user to have fast and efficient access to emergency services via service centres equipped with appropriate mapping tools. By using the MORE phone, users can call for individual help or rescue at any time and from any place covered by GSM by just pressing the red SOS button. The project carried out a very systematic review of users needs, spanning from young to old, non-disabled as well as disabled people. The users participated through the whole development phase as well in the user needs studies, system requirements and specifications work, development and implementation work, laboratory tests, evaluations and piloting. The project is a good example of how a product developed with disabled and older people in mind can be attractive for every user. INCLUDE experts participated in the work. Features such as big buttons, speech output for feedback information and a user-friendly menu could especially be mentioned.

Figure 2-2. The MORE telephone Benefon

The MORE work was also a source of inspiration for the producer to put another phone with localising features onto the market.
(www.prosoma.lu/cgibin/show.py?opt=flat&id=4642&page=result).
An interesting application that we have already today is mobile telephones with text telephony programmes (e.g. Nokia communicator and Europolitan carrier). And the multimedia video telephones with text telephony programmes.

Figure 2- 3. The Nokia communicator

Relay services with text/speech, speech/text, signing/speech, speech/signing, text/signing (see sub-chapter.2.2), enable mobile telephone users to use the communication method they prefer (www.stakes.fi/cost219/videotelephony.htm#5.2.2 Communication via relay service).

Mobile text telephony

Spanish users and the Government Administration detected the need to facilitate mobile text telephony for hearing impaired people to enhance their freedom of movement. The telephone operator Airtel and the Technical University of Madrid were contacted to look for a clear-cut solution under the explicit constraint that: any new terminal must be based on a commercially available product, otherwise the design and industrialisation costs of the new product would make it impossible to market at a reasonable price.

After a wide search, the Nokia 9000 was selected (later updated to the Nokia 9110 version) because the hardware fulfilled all the project specifications and all it required was some software modifications. On the other hand, selecting this product eliminated the industrialisation costs. To develop the necessary software, direct collaboration between Nokia and the Technical University of Madrid was crucial to the success of the project.
The current terminal can also communicate with any Personal Computer connected to the PSTN through a standard modem. The software developed has a user-friendly interface: it is possible to select character size and the display can represent up to 12 lines of text making it easier to follow the conversation. The services that this terminal already provided can also be used.

This system has been made available to deaf people by Airtel at no cost, independently of the service provider they contact. There are currently more than 3000 of these devices in operation in Spain. In addition, a new service for deaf people will start shortly. There will be an automatic protocol converter which will allow communication between the previously mentioned Nokia terminal and the Oticon terminals. Oticon, based on the V21 protocol, is the most popular text telephone currently used in Spain.

Figure 2-4. Spanish text telephone based on the communicator

An inductive loop such as the Nokia LPS-3 brings mobile communications to hearing aid users
www.nokia.com/news/news_htmls/nmp_980402.html

Many hearing aids support induction loop technology, which has been used for decades in banks, churches, and other public premises to help hearing impaired people to communicate. The hearing aid captures the signal supplied from the loop when it is in the T-mode. This same technology was utilised in the Nokia LPS-1 which was the first product of its kind in the world. Using a vibrating battery further enhances the ease of use of the LPS-1 product. When the phone is set on the auto-answer mode, the user only needs to switch the hearing aid to the T-mode to answer the call. Nokia has also introduced voice dialling (Nokia 8890) which helps a lot of disabled users.

Videotelephone

Let us take as an example the multimedia-project 1998-2000 by the Finnish Association of the Deaf (www.kl-deaf.fi).

With the help of multimedia, deaf people who use the Finnish Sign Language are able to look after their affairs independently and keep in contact with others just as hearing people are. Above all, the possibility of transmitting and receiving a moving picture in Sign Language provides new ways to participate. With the help of the videophone, deaf people can attend to their affairs in their own language and increasingly do it from home. This is even more important to deaf people who live in remote areas.

Figure 2-5. I sign by phone Multimediaproject

In the multimedia-project of the Finnish Association of the Deaf, new forms of services have been created with the help of modern technology. In the Joensuu region the videophone is used for long-distance interpreting in the Finnish Sign Language and in the northern part of Finland for bringing social services within the reach of deaf people.
In the experiment of long-distance interpreting, the organisation of the interpreters is facilitated as physical distance is no longer a concern. A deaf person together with a hearing person can be seated in front of the same videophone and together make picture contact with the Joensuu interpreter referral service centre. Alternatively, a deaf person can use the videophone to contact a Finnish Sign Language interpreter who connects him/her to a hearing person with a regular phone and vice versa. The service has been developed as a continuation of the CANs project.

Communication software

VTT Information Technology has developed Bliss Cat and Word Cat software that are currently available form CompAid Ltd (www.compaid.fi/english/products.htm).

Figure 2-6. Bliss Cat display

The objective of the Bliss Cat program was to develop communication abilities of speech impaired children. The program can also be
used to train the child to use his or her personal input device and method. The software has been based on a prototype that was developed in the TIDE Bridge ACCESS project.

Word Cat is a text processor for people with physical and speech disabilities. You can create text through individual wordlists and phrase libraries. In addition to speech synthesis you can pre-record frequently used messages in human voice. The program also provides the ability to use a phone, either a standard phone or a mobile phone including text messages.

Figure 2-7. Word Cat display

Another project that could be mentioned under this heading is the TIDE- ALDICT. It is a European project aiming to achieve the development of an e-mail programme accessible to mentally impaired users, creating at the same time the possibility of improving their literacy and communication skills (www.ilsmh-ea.be/aldict/aldict.htm).

The program developed is available in four languages: English, French, German, and Portuguese. It allows automatic translation between different Graphic Signs communication systems such as Rebus and PCS, as well as translation of the words linked to those symbols in the abovementioned languages.

Figure 2-8. E-mail interface

The project created the opportunity for the participation of 108 mentally impaired youngsters from different countries from 20 institutions and 5 organisations for people with mental impairment. The data show a keen interest from the users and an improvement in their communication skills. A Portuguese project involving the Portuguese organisation will start in 2002.

2.1.3 Support of Daily Living

The area of support of daily living, both for the general public and older people, is also an area that has undergone a great deal of development over the past ten to fifteen years. This is particularly true in the area of smart homes where some real applications have been implemented for older people in countries such as Belgium, Finland, Norway and the Netherlands for example, albeit on a small scale [COST 219bis, van Berlo (Ed.)].

There is however a marked difference in this area in the sense that the first demonstration homes have been built for older people. For once then this group of people are not the late adapters but some of the initial users and are perceived as an important part of the potential market, especially by local authorities.

Another development has been the system for alerting deaf people by using RDS (radio data system) that started in the beginning of the 1990's when there were no alerting systems except those functioning at home, such as lights blinking when somebody pressed the door bell. Today alerting systems are available on the market.

Activation of older people

The Finnish Silver Bird Sound Service (www.audioriders.fi/
english/index.htm) has been specially designed to maintain and improve the mental, social and physical abilities of older people living in nursing or age care homes.

Figure 2-9a and Figure 2-9b. The console provides easy access to sound therapy

The service makes it easy to incorporate rehabilitative activities into everyday care for older people. Studies in Finnish residential care homes and sheltered housing units have shown that this audio tool improves the functional capacities of older people, saves resources and helps allocate resources more appropriately to the residents' needs.

The service uses digital networks to play audio programmes stored in the memory of a local server or portable computer on demand. The programmes, which feature music, current affairs, short stories, memory recall programmes, quiz games and physical exercise, are produced by Audio Riders and frequently updated for users via the Internet.

Further development of SILVER BIRD for different cultural groups, undertaken jointly with the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom, is being funded by the EU project called Sound Vitamins for the Elderly.

Home care

An example of home care services developing in the information society is the introduction of the smart home concept.

Figure 2-10. Example of a smart home configuration

It describes the electronic interconnection of external and internal telecommunications networks and domestic equipment, operating in an intelligent way, in order to assist the domestic user. Figure 2-10 shows some typical services and applications for smart homes. A detailed description of smart home technology can be found in [COST 219bis, van Berlo (Ed.)]. An example of smart home care services is shown in figure 2-11 (www.pikosystems.fi/index.html).

Figure 2-11a and Figure 2-11b. Remote control inputs Pikosystems

Types of domestic equipment which can be included in the smart home concept include heating systems, cooking, white goods (dish washer, washing machine, freezer etc.), home entertainment devices (radio, TV, Video recorders etc.), telecommunications devices (telephone, video telephone, fax,), personal computers, health monitoring systems, safety systems, and automated devices such as curtain or door controllers. The control of the devices can be very easy as for instance when the pikosystems' "Environmental Adaptivity" is used with Door Opener´s Receiver to help a user to open the door automatically when he approaches his own house-door.

Figure 2-12. WristCare® IST

Sensors have been developed for continuously monitoring its users' activity level and other physiological signals. The first in the world of these, WristCare®, developed by the Finnish company IST sends alarms automatically when the user is not able to do so himself by using a wrist worn alarm, as shown in Figure 2-12 (www.istsec.fi/). Also other sensors for temperature, heart rate and breathing (ca@carital.finland.net) can be coupled to the system. The alarms are transferred when needed to the home care centre, the hospital, the district maintenance centre or district alarm centre depending on the alarm in question.

Many older people feel unsafe at home. The videotelephone can be used as a media to support daily living for instance by giving information, advice and by updating memory, as well as by providing the social presence of friends or of the workers in the service centre. The video telephone can also be used for home medical diagnostics (supervision) or for giving physical fitness training instructions, making it possible for a relative or a non-trained care person to cope with some medical treatment problems.

Many older people need different kinds of support for living independently. The Functional Home is an exhibition with for instance two model apartments equipped with the latest technology. Environment control equipment is set up in the rooms to enable the remote control of windows, doors, lighting and entertainment electronics. By using safetyphones people can get help from the alarm centre. The safetyphone can also control the state of health by monitoring activity, temperature and pulse. The Functional Home is an example of barrier-free living and planning.

Figure 2-13. Model home

People who are interested can visit the Helsinki City Functional Home (www.hel.fi/sosv/toimivakoti), a model home centre displaying solutions for making living at home easier.

Alarm systems

The development of an alarm for deaf and hard of hearing people started already in the early days of COST219 and continued as the FASDE project in TIDE.

Figure 2-14. The Tactum alarm

The result is an elegant watch with a Swiss quality movement that indicates different events with varying vibration patterns and symbols. Several transmitters around the home send event signals (telephone ringing, baby crying, doorbell ringing etc.) to the watch. The system is easy to install and can be used at home as well as at work (www.tactum.com/tactum/en/index.htm).

Telerehabilitation

Another interesting example is the use of videoconferencing equipment for rehabilitation and training of people living in the scarcely populated northern part of Finland (www.gateprojekti.net/video.htm).

Figure 2-15. Conferencing equipment

Figure 2-16. Videoconference network in Northern Finland

2.1.4 Access to Information

The widespread availability and increasing affordability of the Internet has revolutionised the way information is accessed for the majority of the people. The importance of ensuring all people in society are able to participate in this revolution is increasingly recognised by the politicians and the e-Europe initiative (see sub-chapter 3.1.3) could be mentioned in this respect. The W3C Guidelines on Web Accessibility are also playing an important role.

Historically, people with a hearing disability have been the group facing the most problems when using telephones; however, with the ever increasing reliance on visual means for displaying information, it is increasingly visually impaired people who have been confronted with access problems. The emergence of multimedia terminals where the user can choose his or her preferred mode of input/output offers great opportunities in this respect.

The development of equipment and services for people with limited ability has been quite considerable over the past ten years. A detailed analysis of these developments in the area of access to information is given in chapter 4, but we should mention here the development of screen readers for blind people using a personal computer, the availability of special keyboards and mouse emulators for motor disabled people. Teletext and televideo services in conjunction with the Internet could also be mentioned as a means of solving some of the problems of access to information faced by profoundly deaf people. Further examples are given below.

Transport using rehabilitation technologies leads to economic efficiency, TURTLE

The TIDE-TURTLE project developed a prototype of a real time public information system for transport, which takes full account of the requirements of disabled and older people.

Figure 2-17. TURTLE Journey Planner

Teletext was selected as the main transmission media because of its low cost to individual users and wide availability in many people's homes. Information is also available through public information terminals. The system is very cost effective and is running in Tyne and Wear district in the UK. It could also easily be implemented all over Europe. (www.prosoma.lu/cgi-bin/show_new.py?id= 3157&page = description).

Accessible web services for labour integration of people with disabilities

Merc@dis is a good example of the use of accessible web technology for the empowerment of people with a disability, helping them enter the labour market. At the end of 1999, Foundation Telefónica launched a virtual market of employment by internet called Merc@dis. Most of the Spanish associations of people with disabilities are now currently involved in this project.

Apart from offers and employment demands for people with disabilities (www.mercadis.com) it is possible on the website to obtain information of interest for associations and employers. It is organised as a series of additional services: it allows the access and exchange of information of legal-fiscal aspects, grants, security in the workplace, risk prevention, workplace ergonomics, documents in a database, and so on. An example of these services could be the "self-employment" section in which people with disabilities or groups of them give information about their professional activities or "best practice" section containing case studies in employment and disability.

After eighteen months of operational time the Merc@dis website has had more than 50,000 visits. 365 employment entities offer employment and it contains nearly 3000 curricula of people that are looking for employment. Up to now, more than 1500 work positions have been offered in Merc@dis. Finally, it is important to highlight that Merc@dis got several prizes for its accessibility and design.

Note taking

The Memona Plus - Notetaker (www.nkl.fi/memona/memoengl.htm) is a new electronic, portable notetaker designed especially for blind and visually impaired people. The pocket size and light Memona is an ideal product for these groups of people to take notes or record short voice messages at school, at work, at home or on the road.

Figure 2-18. Memona Finnish Federation of the Visually Impaired

The Memona Plus enables both 6 or 8 dot Braille. The storing capacity is 30 A4 pages. The written texts can be checked sign by sign through the built-in digitised speech. The notes can be stored as different files and they can easily be transferred from Memona Plus to a PC, for which it can also serve as a keyboard. Thus Memona is a perfect interface to information and communication services.

2.1.5 Discussion

Even though the array of examples given in this chapter is far from making up a comprehensive overview of all services and products that have appeared on the market, it nevertheless makes up an informative snapshot and shows that there has been considerable development over the last decade in the availability of telecommunications equipment and services for people with limited ability.

Indeed it could be argued that, from an equality point of view, disabled and older people today encounter a much more accessible ICT environment than 10 years ago. However, this is absolutely not to say that all the problems have been solved. For example, people who need accessible ICT for participation on an equal footing in society often cannot afford the equipment and services. Interface devices especially meant to facilitate life of disabled users are normally expensive because they are only manufactured in small series. This highlights the importance of adopting the design for all concept in as many products as possible rather than developing special solutions. On a political level, decision makers have started to realise, for example, that Internet services have to be made available and accessible to all citizens. The eEurope initiative has as one of its goals, to ensure that public Web services become accessible. Also anti-discrimination legislation in some EU member states (UK and Portugal) is driving increased demand for "Design for All" products and services.

New challenges along with new opportunities also keep emerging. For example, a new "gap" has been created with the breakthrough of multimedia. The requirement that information should be presented in optional modes is not always fulfilled. Not to mention the requirement of also always having the information in textual form, for instance, as tags describing a picture or what is shown in a video clip. It should be pointed out that this requirement would potentially benefit all users.

The development of telecommunications services and equipment has moved from technical devices towards more integrated and versatile systems. The area of smart houses is a good example of this trend. The market has become more complex and involves co-operation between companies, experts and users as well as top expertise in modern projects. The whole service chain has to be taken into consideration not just devices or just services, which presents a further challenge if the inclusive design concept is to be implemented.

Areas where progress has been made over the last decade include hearing aids, speech recognition, relay services and graphical interfaces. Hearing aids have been developed giving better quality and background noise reduction. The interference between mobiles and hearing aids still exists but can in some cases be remedied with the aid of auxiliary devices (loops). Speech recognition is currently available, for example, for people who need it to control their computers or mobile phones. Relay services for deaf people and speech impaired people are much more versatile than earlier, offering much more sophisticated services (see sub-chapter 2.2) and can serve also people using signing or using Bliss. Communication between different text telephone protocols can also be handled automatically. The widespread use of mobile SMS has also provided hearing impaired people and part of deaf community with a communication channel that can be used by a majority of people.

The transition from line based operating systems towards graphical interfaces created a lot of accessibility problems for blind people some 20 years ago. The Windows systems that were mostly very difficult for visually disabled people to use have now been made much more accessible due to screen readers, large font, speech output etc. Some features are available in ordinary personal computers or can easily be installed. Scanners have become affordable and the popularity of electronic post makes it easy to send scanned material to a friend for analysis. Also, Internet services like the Web electronic mail and file transfer have provided mobility impaired people with new options for a more equal participation in the ICT community.

The MORE phone illustrates the increasing role of the users who are participating in the research itself, in the dissemination of information and as promoters of new solutions. The importance of including the users in the design phase cannot be overemphasised, especially if more design for all products are to reach the market.

The best solution would be that all mass-produced equipment be designed in such a way that as many as possible could directly use them. "Design for All" would help accessibility become a reality.

2.1.6 References

COST 219, Roe P.R.W. (Ed), (1995). Telecommunications for All. Ch.4.4 pp. 149-152. ECSC-EC-EAEC, Brussels, Luxemburg, Catalogue Nr: CD-90-95-712-EN-C.

COST 219 (1989). Research for Handicapped People.

COST 219, von Tetzchner, S. (Ed.), (1991). Issues in Telecommunications and Disability, ECSC-EEC-EAEC, Brussels, Luxemburg, EUR 13845, ISBN 92 826 3128 1, Catalogue Nr CD-NA-13845-EN-C Spanish version 1993 Fundesco ISBN 84-8112-006-5. Portuguese version 1994 Lisboa ISBN 972 9301 08 5.

COST 219bis, van Berlo, A. (Ed.). Design Guidelines on Smart Homes. EC. 1999.

HEARING CONCERN, (2001). Hearing aids and digital mobile phones, A survey of the experiences of hearing aid wearers. hearing.concern@ukonline.co.uk

TIDE Pilot Action , The Synopses, March 1992, CEC, DGXIII/79/92.

Technology initiative for disabled and elderly people, TIDE, Bridge phase-synopses December 1994, CEC, DGXIII, Luxembourg, ISBN 92-826-9595-6.

Telematics for the integration of the disabled and elderly, Synopses of projects January 1999, Luxembourg, ISBN 92-828-4628-8.

Heart project, line C, European Service Delivery Systems in Rehabilitation Technology.

W3C, Vanderheiden G., Chisholm W., Jacobs I. (1999), Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.

2.2 Relay Services: A Comparison between 1991 and 2001
Patrick Roe

2.2.1 Introduction

Relay services are just one example of a telecommunications service for disabled people. The term relay service refers here to a service for disabled people that allows them to use the telephone, when normally they could not, through the use of an operator. This chapter gives a snapshot of the services currently offered by relay services across Europe and Australia and make a comparison to the situation in 1991.

A survey of text telephones and relays services was already undertaken by COST 219 between 1989-1991 and published in 1992 [COST 219, Olsen, K.G. (Ed.) et al.] and serves as the basis of comparison. It should be pointed out however that the 1991 services were not analysed in terms of their quality and quantity of service. Some of these services were in fact very minimal in 1991.

A set of three questionnaires, one for text, one for videophone and one for speech to speech relay services was sent out to the various relay service operators through the COST 219bis national representatives. These questionnaires, which can be found on the COST 219 website (www.cost219.org), contained almost all the same questions as in the 1991 version with additional questions included to reflect the recent evolution of services and the requirements set out in the ETSI document TR101 806, Human Factors (HF); Guidelines for Telecommunication Relay Services for Text telephones [ETSI] (www.etsi.org).

Figure 2-19. Example of a video relay service being use with a sign language interpreter

2.2.2 Definitions

The definitions used are drawn from the ETSI TR101 806 document, [ETSI].

A Text relay service is a telecommunications service that enables text telephone users and voice telephone users to interact by providing conversion between the two modes of communication in substantially real time.

A Videophone relay service is a telecommunications service that enables deaf videophone signers and voice telephone users to interact.

Speech to speech relay is a telecommunications service that enables speech impaired telephone users and other users to interact by providing skilled assistance between them.

Figure 2-20. Examples of usage of text relay service

2.2.3 Analysis of Results

A total of 16 questionnaires were received from 10 European countries and Australia. Eleven of the questionnaires were for text relay services, 3 for videophone relay services (2 pilot schemes) and 2 for speech to speech relay services. Sweden has a speech relay service but no answer was received. A summary is given in Table 2-1

Table 2-1. Questionnaires received in 1991 and 2001

It can be seen that two countries, Portugal and Greece, have introduced text relay services since 1991, albeit fledgling services as will be seen from the answers to the questionnaire. It should also be noted that the following eight countries, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain, responded to the questionnaire in 1991 simply stating that there was no known text telephone relay service operating in their country.

It should also be pointed out that France is a bit of a "Special" case in the sense that the wide availability of Minitel terminals has in many cases superseded the need for a text relay service (the Minitel can be used as a text telephone through the Minitel Dialogue programme). This explains, as will be seen later, the low take up of the relay service in France but there are some situations where a relay service is nevertheless needed.
2.2.4 Text Telephone Relay Services

The following ten tables (2-2 to 2-11) summarise the answers given to the questionnaire on text telephones and where available a comparison is made with the answers given in 1991.

Names and Access Numbers

The increased number of telephone access numbers shown in Table 2-2 is a first indication of the increased sophistication and array of services offered.

Table 2-2. Names and access numbers of text telephone relay services (questions 1 & 2)

For example, the first number given for Australia is for access by voice, text telephone or modem the second number is for toll-free access by text telephone or modem. In the case of Finland, the first number gives access to the basic relay service in Finnish, Swedish and English, the second number is for calls to cellular phones, the third number is for customer services that require a charge and for foreign calls other than Sweden and the fourth number is for entertainment services liable to a charge. In the case of Switzerland, there are now services in three languages instead of two (Italian has been added) and a distinction is also made in the direction of communication i.e. deaf to hearing person or hearing to deaf person, with the result that there is in fact 6 access numbers (2 for each language). Of the two numbers given for France, one is for deaf users and the other for hearing users.

Access from Abroad

Table 2-3 illustrates the ongoing trend towards offering direct dialling to the various relay services from abroad. This was already possible for the majority of relay services in 1991 and is possible for all the relay services that responded to question 3 in the 2001 questionnaire.

Table 2-3. Responses to question 3, "How can this service be reached from abroad?"

Who is Operating and Paying for the Text Relay Services?

There is wide range of responses to the question of who operates and who pays for the relay service. The reasons a particular organisation may be operating a relay service are often historically linked to who originally set the service up (very often voluntary organisations). There has been an evolution in who pays for the running of the services. This is not surprising in view of the changes in the overall telecommunications environment with the move from state run monopolies to a fully liberalised free market. It is not possible however to extract a single overall trend or model as different solutions have been found to fund the running of the service, depending on the cultural, social and legislative context in each country.

Table 2-4. Who operates and pays for the running of the text telephone relay services

It can nonetheless be noted that there are several countries, for example, Australia, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, where the introduction of legislation/regulation has led to the service being paid for or continue to be paid for by the main operator or operators in that country. It is debatable as to whether this would be or continue to be the situation without the legislation/regulation but certainly in the case of Switzerland the change of funding arrangements can be directly linked to the introduction of new legislation in 1998 [KLEEB]. It can also be noted that in most of the countries where there is no national relay service, with the notable exception of Belgium where legislation is in place, there is also no legislation forcing the universal service provider or main operator to provide such a service (see sub-chapter 3.5 on legislation/regulation).

It would however be an oversimplification to just draw the conclusion that the universal service providers were only paying for the service in countries where legislation or regulation is in place and not in the others. Although, as has already been pointed out, this is true in some countries there are notable exceptions in Finland, France, Greece, the Netherlands and Sweden where there is no specific legislation/regulation and yet solutions have been found to fund the running of the service. This once again raises the "carrot or stick?" question discussed in the introduction in chapter 1. In the case of relay services, the "carrot" coupled with the cultural and social context has been enough to ensure the setting up and running of professional text relay services in some countries. In other countries the introduction of a legislative "stick" has ensured the continuation of the service and affected the funding arrangements. In countries where there is still no professionally run relay services it would certainly seem increasingly likely that relying totally on market forces to ensure the setting up of such relay services is wholly unrealistic. The introduction of legislation may prove to be the only way ensure that such services are indeed set up.

Provision of Text Telephones

Here again there is a wide range of different solutions in place for the provision of text telephones. It is interesting to note that in Sweden, not only are the text telephones (software for PC's or dedicated text telephones) free of charge to the individual, but every individual, entitled to a prescription, has the right to acquire one extra, simplified version of the text telephone, free of charge. This can be put at the site of a frequently called friend or relative, thus lessening the burden of the relay service. In the United Kingdom, customers do pay for their own text telephones, however there is a government scheme to pay for equipment to allow people to work and some local authorities also pay for small numbers of text telephones. Nevertheless, the majority of users still end up paying for their own text telephone.

Table 2-5. How are the text phones provided in the various countries?

In response to the question of control measures in place, five countries have written procedures or a contract (Australia, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom) and five countries have no written procedures (Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, Greece, Portugal). KPN in the Netherlands does however have its own control procedures and their operators follow courses given by people from the associations for deaf people. The United Kingdom also has democratically elected customer forum.

Operating Hours

It can be seen in Table 2-6 that virtually all the countries are providing a 24 hours service, 7 days a week (with the exception of France and Greece), in compliance with ETSI guidelines, document ETSI TR101 806, § 7.3.2.1 [ETSI]. In some countries this has been written down as a service requirement (Finland) or written into the legislation (Switzerland). In countries that did not already have a 24 hour service, this represents an important improvement in the overall text relay service.

Table 2-6. Operating hours

Speech Path and Average Answering Times

Sub-chapter 5.1.6 of the ETSI Guidelines TR101 806 [ETSI], stipulate that a speech path should be provided in both directions. Just over half the countries that responded to the questionnaire are currently complying with this requirement. As for the average time to answer and maximum delay for 90% of the calls, the document (§7.3.2.1) sets respectively an average response time of 7 seconds and a maximum delay for 90% of the calls of 20 seconds between 7-22 hours and 40 seconds outside this period. It is interesting to note that from the answers given that the only country complying (apart from Greece and Portugal, where there is still only a fledgling service) with the 7 second average time to answer is from outside Europe. It should be said however that both Sweden and the United Kingdom did not give any specific answer to this question and are fully complying with the requirement for the maximum delay of 90% of the calls as is Finland. We do not have any data concerning the average response times and maximum delay from the 1991 survey as a comparison, but the ETSI guidelines have set targets which several countries are already meeting.

Table 2-7. Speech path and average answering times

Call Costs

Chapter 8 of the ETSI guidelines TR101 806, [ETSI], stipulate that the user should pay rates no greater than the rates paid for calls made without using the relay service. It can be seen from Table 2-8 that most countries are complying with this requirement. It is also interesting to draw a parallel here with the legislative/regulative situation (see sub-chapter 3.5). For example, the introduction in Switzerland of the new Swiss Law on Telecommunication in 1998 has seen the costs of calls via the relay service drop from .23 SFr (.15 ¤) to 0.04 SFr (.026 ¤) or less [KLEEB]. In France "social" tariffs have been defined in the decree no 99-162 of 8th of March 1990 to facilitate the access to telecommunications services for disabled people. This makes it mandatory for France Telecom as the Universal Service Provider to implement these social tariffs. It should also be pointed out that a text message takes about five times as long as the same voice message. In Sweden, this is taken into account whereby a fixed standard compensation for various extra costs is paid by the government to most people with disabilities which is supposed to cover the extra cost of communication.

Table 2-8. Call costs and how they are charged

Access to Services

Table 2-9. Responses to questions 11 to 14

Q11: Are the hearing/non disabled recipients of a call informed that the connection is going through a relay service?
Q12: Does the relay service provide the text user with access to the whole range of public emergency services?
Q12b: If yes, is this through the normal emergency dialling code?
Q13: Does the relay service provide the text user with access to the whole range of national and international directory services?
Q13b: If yes, is this through the normal directory dialling code?
Q14: Are all line/network services available?

It can be seen from Table 2-9 that there is a high degree of uniformity to the responses to questions 11, 12 and 13. France again is the main exception here where theses services can be accessed directly through Minitel rather than through the relay service. The hearing/non disabled recipients of a call are informed that the connection is going through a relay service (question 11) thus complying with the requirement set out in §§5.1.1 of ETSI guidelines [ETSI]). The relay services also all provide access to the whole range of public emergency services but not through the normal emergency dialling codes (a preference stated in §§5.1.2 of ETSI guidelines [ETSI]) but through the relay service number. The same can be said, with the exception of the Norwegian relay service which does not offer this possibility, of access to the whole range of national and international directory services (question 13). In general, the user dials the relay service number and then requests the directory assistance number. As for the availability of other line/network services as laid down in the ETSI guidelines (§§§5.1.4 to 5.1.8) such as calling line identification, connecting line identification, talk through, voice and text messaging, etc., there is wide variation of responses with about half the countries offering these line/network services.

Table 2-10. Registration and numbers of customers
* a new system will soon alleviate the need for registration

The wide variation in the estimation of existing and potential customers is clearly highlighted in Table 2-10. One difficulty is that only the United Kingdom (soon to change) and Portugal require the users to register and there is therefore have no precise way of knowing exactly how many people are using the service. Another difficulty may lie in the ambiguity of the question relating to the potential customers, as is indicated in the response given by the Swedish relay service: "anyone wishing to communicate with a deaf or speech impaired person is a potential user". This is of course true, but other estimates seem to be based on the number of deaf and speech impaired people in the overall population, which is between 0.5-1% [GILL, J., SHIPLEY, T.]. In the case of Portugal this figure has been multiplied by a factor of 30 to take into account the friends and relatives of the deaf or speech impaired users.

Another way of measuring the usage, which has been given in some responses, is the number of calls per week or month. An interesting comparison can be made, for example, between the number of calls in relation to the overall population between Switzerland and the United Kingdom. The Swiss relay service is handling 10 000 calls a month for an overall population of around 7 million, or 1.4 calls/month per 1000 inhabitants and the United Kingdom relay service is handling 268 000 calls a month (62 000 a week) for an overall population of around 60 Million, or 4.5 calls/month per 1000 inhabitants. The number of calls per month is also an indication of the maturity of a particular relay service. In the case of Greece the figure shows that this is a recently set up fledgling service as is also the case for Portugal. Naturally the more mature service the more likely it is to have reached saturation level (the case of Sweden for example).

The other facilities not mentioned and foreseeable changes to the relay services are summarised for the five countries that responded to these two questions. The synthetic speech facility in Sweden is for those who can hear but have a speech impairment; it transforms the users text to synthetic speech that is read directly to the non-text telephone user. The "Talkdirect" facility is for those who can talk but can no longer hear.

Table 2-11. Other facilities not mentioned and foreseeable changes

It is clear from these responses that the organisations running these relay services are aware of the changing environment and of the need to keep abreast of technological developments.

2.2.5 Videophone Relay Services

As already mentioned and highlighted in Table 2-1, only two countries responded to the questionnaire on videophone relay services. The Australian Communication Exchange Ltd (ACE) conducted a limited trial during 2000 that was internally funded. This service is not currently operational.

A new service is being planned in the Netherlands by TC-Visinet (information: fax: 800 8655638 (TolkNet) gratis, e-mail: info@visinet.nl, www: www.visinet.nl, speech: 0346 333 332, text: 0346 332 333).
In Sweden the videophone relay service "Förmedlings tjänsten för bildtelefoni" is a pilot scheme run as a provisional service. The national access numbers (020 280010: video, 020 280020: voice) are publicised in information folders and on the Internet and the service can be reached from abroad by directly dialling one of the studios. The free service under state legislation is operated from 8h to 20h, Monday-Friday by the Örebro County Council - Tolkcentralen and paid for by the Swedish Post & Telecom Agency, Post & Telestyrelsen. The user pays no more than if the call was made without going through the relay service. Three main documents lay down the quality measures in place: user procedures, operator procedures and internal quality establishment. The hearing/non disabled recipients of a call are informed that the connection is going through a relay service, but the service does not provide a speech path in both directions. The video users have access to both the whole range of directory services and emergency services although for the latter, the users normally use the text relay service. There are currently 300 video customers and 50 voice customers for this service that requires no registration. The estimated number of potential customers is eight thousand.

This survey clearly shows that videophone relay services are much less widespread in Europe than text relay services, but they can provide a valuable service for deaf people who do not like to use text telephones. One of the difficulties is finding a sufficient number of sign language interpreters. The ETSI guideline does however recommend a parallel service for both text telephones and videophones which should be the future standard providing deaf people with a single "multimedia" communication centre.

2.2.6 Speech to Speech Relay Services

As a reminder, a speech to speech relay service is a telecommunications service that enables speech impaired telephone users and other users to interact by providing skilled assistance between them. Two countries, Australia and the United Kingdom (see Table 2-1) responded to the questionnaire on speech to speech relay services. Denmark and Sweden also have such a service but no responses were received. The answers received from these two countries are almost identical to those received for text relay questionnaire and indeed have the same name and are run by the same organisations, the Australian Communication Exchange Ltd (ACE) and Typetalk in the UK.

A Caption Life service with a fast text entry system (speed of speech) is also being planned in the Netherlands. The CL project uses a special fast keyboard (Veyboard) and a special text telephone for simultaneous digital and speech data transmission via the same phone line: Comterm. (information: Veyboard International BV, Postbus 84022, 2508 ARDEN HAAG, email: info@veyboard.nl fax: 070 358 8170).

In view of the similarity in responses it is not our intention to give the same detailed analysis as for the text relay services. The only differences to note in the case of Australia, are the access numbers (1300 555 727, toll free: 1800 555 727 and +61 7 3815 8000 from abroad), the opening hours which are 18 hours per day, (from March 1st 2001) and for both ACE and Typetalk the number of users and potential users are unknown.

It is also interesting to note that the service is mandated in both these countries under national legislation/regulation.

2.2.7 Conclusions

As was the case in 1991, text relay services, as opposed to videophone and speech to speech relay services, remain the most wide spread in Europe. As was also the case in 1991, the situation across Europe varies greatly. It is true to say that two countries (Greece and Portugal) have introduced albeit fledgling services which hopefully will develop positively in the years to come, but there are still six EU countries (Austria, Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg) where there is no professionally run relay service. France is a bit of a special case because of the widespread distribution and use of the Minitel, meaning that more than 4 million homes effectively had a text telephone in their home early on in the eighties. This has meant that their relay service has remained a fairly small operation.

The main improvement and expansion of services have therefore occurred in countries where relay services were already in operation in 1991 (Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom). These professionally run services have clearly become more sophisticated offering more services on an around-the-clock basis.

The introduction of legislation/regulation does seem to have an effect in some countries. The example of the United States also springs to mind here where the introduction of American with Disabilities Act (ADA) has had a galvanising effect. The Telecommunication Relay Service (TRS), regulated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is required under Title IV of this act. Each State is required to develop a state Telecommunication Relay Service programme running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

The argument is sometimes put forward that with the widespread use of the Internet, fax, and SMS messaging there is no longer any need for text relay services. Whilst the widespread use of e-mail and SMS messaging has undeniably altered the habits of both the hearing and non-hearing communities, the relay services still continue and will continue in the future to provide an essential irreplaceable service for immediate personal contact [KLEEB]. These relay services provide a vital bridge between people who communicate by voice and those who communicate by text telephone. The introduction of legislation in countries that do not yet have such a service may prove to be only way for this "gap" to be bridged.

2.2.8 References

COST 219, Olsen, K.G. (Ed.) et al., (1992). Survey of text telephones and relay services in Europe. Published by the European Commission. ISBN 92-826-4395-6, EUR 14242 EN.

ETSI, (2000) draft document TR101 806, Human Factors (HF); Guidelines for Telecommunication Relay Services for Text telephones. (www.etsi.org).

KLEEB, B., (2000). EU-Workshop Proceedings, Preparing a European Deaf Network for information and Communication. Telephone Relay Services in the Age of the Internet.

GILL, J., SHIPLEY, T. (1999). Telephones - What features do people need? Published by the Royal National Institute of the Blind on behalf of Phoneability. ISBN 1 86048 020 9.

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