Blog

Dr. Tessitore Explains Benefits of Caption Call Telephones

Hello, my name is Dr. Tessitore from Now Hear This Clinic in Raleigh, North Carolina. Today I’m going to talk to you about the caption call phone. There’s a lot of features on this phone that make it nice for people who can’t hear well on the phone and I’m going to discuss those with you today, and I’m going to tell you how to access that. 

So, first of all with this phone, you’ll see that there is a large screen on it, and that’s where the captions are going to be presented. As you talk to someone on the phone, you’ll be able to read exactly what they’re saying. And that’s really why you’re going to want this phone, it’s very helpful. But, there’s some other nice features on this phone as well. As you can see, there are large buttons on here that make it easy to see and push the buttons whenever you make a phone call. There’s a speakerphone feature where you can put the person on speakerphone if you want to. Down at the bottom, there is a dial that you can turn up and down the volume, and it actually has a very loud amount of volume possible on this phone, so that is a nice feature as well. It does have a voicemail on it where people can leave messages and you can actually read the voicemail. That way you don’t have to stumble through missing words here and there, which is sometimes difficult whenever you listen on a voicemail recording.

Another thing about this phone is that whenever you get done with a phone conversation, you have the option to save the conversation. Now, when you save that conversation, you can go back and read what was said, you can read the transcription. The reason you might want to do this is if you are on the phone with a doctor- a doctor’s office and they say “okay, you have an appointment on a certain day, at a certain time and here are the instructions and directions to the office.” You may have missed those, and so what you can do is read the transcription and you can actually make sure that you are correct with the correct day and correct time. 

These captions can be written in English or in Spanish, so that’s also a nice feature about this phone. There is no charge to get this phone. It’s actually sponsored by the Federal Communications Commission, the FCC. They put aside money for people who can’t hear well on the phone, and that’s how people can get access to this phone. 

To order it, you would go to your audiologist, and the audiologist would do a hearing test and make sure that you are a candidate for this phone, and if you are, they will order it for you. So, when you come to see me, you don’t have to do anything other than tell me you’re interested in this phone. I will do everything else for you. After I fill out the form, in a few days, Caption Call Representatives will call you to set up an appointment to come to your house. They will set up the phone for you, and they will show you all of the features and how to use it. 

So, if you have difficulty hearing on the phone, or you know anyone who does, definitely get in to see your local audiologist and we will help you figure this out. We’ll help you know if you’re a candidate for it, and we will actually apply for this phone for you. If you have any questions about the Caption Call, this demo is set up in my office, so feel free to come in and I will show you a demo and we can get it ordered for you if you want. Alright, if you have any questions, let us know. I hope you have a great day!