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Federal Relay

Federal Relay, since 1988, as part of Public Law 100-542, the Telecommunications Accessibility Act of 1988, has provided equal telecommunication access for deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals. Federal Relay is managed by the General Services Administration (GSA) and provided by Sprint. Qualified users of Federal Relay include: active or retired Federal/Military employees, Veterans and federally-recognized U.S. Tribal members.

The following products are:

  • Federal Telecommunications Relay Service - Traditional TTY existing telephone equipment/lines;

  • There is a new voice number for hearing callers to call Federal Relay: 1-866-377-8642 (1-866-FRS-VOICE);

  • The United States Government also has an on-line TTY Directory. The listing available 24/7/365 - anytime, anywhere and there is no charge to print or download directory in Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF formats. The website is: http://www.sprintbiz.com/tty/search.jsp;

  • Federal Video Relay Service - FedVRS is the newest communication solution for Federal Employees to use and for the General Public to access Federal Agencies using sign language via a video connection - www.fedvrs.us;

  • Federal Relay Service Online - FRSO is the equivalent of Internet Relay - www.frso.us;

  • Federal Relay Conference Captioning - FedRCC uses the same high-quality steno-captioners that provide closed captioning for live television, news, sports and weather to deliver live, real-time text streamed to an Internet-connected computer anywhere in the world. A high-speed Internet connection is not required and dial-up (56k) will work. This is ideal for teleconference calls - www.fedrcc.us;

  • Federal CapTelSM - The CapTel phone, developed by Ultratec, Inc., looks and works like a standard phone, with callers talking and listening to each other, but with one very significant difference: captions are provided live for every phone call. The captions are displayed on the phone's built-in screen so the user can read the words while listening to the voice of the other party. Sprint and GSA are working together to nationally distribute up to fifty (50) free CapTel phones per month. For more information, go to http://www.captionedtelephone.com/availability/federal.phtml 

If you have questions about Federal Relay, please do not hesitate to contact Karl A. Ewan, Agency Liaison for Federal Relay at his e-mail address: karl.a.ewan@mail.sprint.com or go to http://www.federalrelay.us.