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Washington Relay is designed to connect deaf, deaf-blind, hard
of hearing and speech disabled people with people and businesses
that use standard (voice) telephones. Although the relay service
has been in existence for more than 14 years, many people don't
understand how it works. As a result, people who receive relay
calls often hang up, believing the caller is a telemarketer.
Thus the Don't Hang Up campaign was developed.
The goal of the Don't Hang Up campaign is to decrease the frequency
of hang ups by people who are unfamiliar with relay. The campaign
includes a public service announcement, as well as articles in
business publications.
But the best way to reduce hang ups, especially by businesses,
is to identify them and educate them about relay. You can help
in two ways:
When you experience a hang up on a relay call, please contact Van Scheppach (by clicking on "CONTACT" for e-mail or telephone number), and Washington Relay will contact the business to educate
them about relay.
Consider changing the way you have your relay calls announced so
instead of saying, "This is the Washington Relay Service...." you
ask the operator to begin "This is a customer of your business calling
through the Washington Relay," or "This is [your name] calling
through Washington Relay." Some people have found that this kind
of greeting reduces hang ups. Another option would be to ask the
operator not to announce relay, and give the operator instructions as of how
you'd like the call to be announced, such as "Hello, this is [your
name]," however it becomes your responsibility to educate the person
that you're using the relay service (as the operator automatically becomes
the third party after you take over).
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