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Feature Reference
Supporting TTY Callers
Administrator’s Guide for Avaya Communication Manager 1747
November 2003
Using an acoustic coupler to connect your phone for recording allows you to record TTY and voice into a
single announcement. In this case, when you press 1 to record, you can type the TTY message, then
immediately pick up the handset to record the voice message. For this type of recording, digital phones
also offer the option to press # to complete the recording, which eliminates any extraneous noise at the
end of the recording. Unfortunately, using this method for combined TTY and voice recordings is likely
to create extraneous noise in the middle of your announcements.
As a better alternative to recording with your phone, as with voice recordings, you can create .WAV files
on other recording applications and then copy and save the .WAV files to your announcement board (see
‘‘Moving announcements to a VAL circuit pack or to another LAN device’’ in Administrator’s Guide for
Avaya Communication Manager, 555-233-506). In this case, the announcement files must meet the same
criteria as voice recordings (see ‘‘Announcement file format requirements’’ in Administrator’s Guide for
Avaya Communication Manager, 555-233-506).
TTY is also known as TDD (Telecommunications Device for the Deaf).
Setting up hunt groups for TTY callers
Several laws, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 and Section 255 of the
Telecommunications Act of 1996, require that “reasonable accommodation” be provided for people with
disabilities. For this reason, your company may choose to offer support for callers who use TTYs.
(These devices are also known as TDDs -- “Telecommunication Device for the Deaf” -- but the term TTY
is generally preferred, in part because many users of these devices are hearing-impaired, but not deaf.)
TTY callers can be accommodated by creating a hunt group that includes TTY-equipped agents. The
TTY itself looks a little like a laptop computer, except that it has a one- or two-line alphanumeric display
instead of a computer screen. The cost of a typical TTY is approximately three hundred dollars. Although
many TTYs can connect directly with the telephone network via analog RJ-11 jacks, Avaya recommends
that agents be equipped with TTYs that include an acoustic coupler that can accommodate a standard
telephone handset. One reason for this recommendation is that a large proportion of TTY users are
hearing impaired, but still speak clearly. These individuals often prefer to receive calls on their TTYs and
then speak in response. This requires the call center agent to alternate between listening on the phone and
then typing on the TTY, a process made considerably easier with an acoustically coupled configuration.
Although TTY-emulation software packages are available for PCs, most of these do not have the ability
to intermix voice and TTY on the same call.
For a TTY hunt group, you can record TTY announcements and use them for the hunt group queue. To
record announcements for TTY, simply follow the same steps as with voice recordings from your
telephone (see Chapter 13, Managing Announcements). However, instead of speaking into your phone to
record, you type the announcement with the TTY device.
NOTE:
For an alternative to simply creating a TTY hunt group, you can use vectors to process
TTY calls. With vectors, you can allow TTY callers and voice callers to use the same
phone number. In this case, you can also record a single announcement that contains both
TTY signaling and a voice recording. See ‘‘Handling TTY calls with vectors’’.