Providing Customer Support through Text Telephone and Modem

Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing or who have speech impairments may not be able to use standard voice telephones to access customer information and support services. These services should, therefore, be made available through a text telephone (also known as TT or TDD) and standard ASCII modems. Stand-alone text telephones are available with a wide range of features, and combination TT/ASCII modems can also be attached to standard computers, although specialized software is normally used to get full answering-machine functionality. For additional information, including lists of vendors supplying text telephone hardware and software, see Appendix A, "Additional Resources."