Hello everyone! I hope that every one of you had awesome time with the fourth of the July or Independence Day whichever one that some of you prefer to call it, on a such holiday like this everyone usually celebrate it by grilling out some awesome foods such as steak, hamburger, hotdog, chilli, corn and among of others with their family or the friends to eat with to celebrate the fourth of July or Independence Day. I enjoyed it myself a bit as we had grilled some hamburgers, hotdogs and bacon wrapped hotdogs for our fourth of July dinner which it was fantastic especially the hotdog wrapped with bacon because I have never ate them before in my life which is a bit surprising to me but now since that I have tried them I think I am going to want some of them more often every time we do some grilling outside. For the hotdog wrapped with the bacon being cooked on the grill I told my mother that it tastes like the hotdog with a bit more crispy and have a bit more of smoke flavor to it than just the hotdog itself especially that we grill our foods with the charcoal lately ever since we bought the charcoal grill because we were somewhat tired of grilling some foods on the gas grill that we have outside although I have nothing against the gasoline grill because when it comes to certain foods I prefer them to be grilled on the gasoline grill over charcoal grill for some reason.
Lately for some reason I have heard a lot of things through social media online but one thing that really caught my attention was that there were a lot of people especially on social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter asking some of the people out there about what they means or what does the service offers so I decided that I am going to give the answer myself in case if nobody else has answered some of the people’s questions about this.
What is VRS/VP?
I have seen a lot of people saying what is VRS or VP all over on the internet, so I am going to clear this up for every one of you out there who have wondered what is VRS/VP or what do they means. VRS or VP is actually related but VRS stands for Video Relay Service and VP stands for Video Phone. Video phone is a device that is soaring everyday in the technology world which is a good thing because video phone is can only be used for Deaf or Hard of Hearing and Video Relay Service is for Video Phone which that means Deaf or Hard of Hearing uses the video phone as Video Relay Service that assists Deaf or Hard of Hearing people to communicate with everybody who can hear via phone. Video Relay Service has several providers who provide the equipment which is Video Phone to any Deaf or Hard of Hearing people who is in need of them so that they can make a call to these people who can hear, just like TTY which that stands for Text Telephone where Deaf or Hard of Hearing people are able to call the hearing people by typing letters on the device and the text that had been typed is interpreted by voicing what Deaf or Hard of Hearing person had typed to the hearing people phone. But TTY is an ancient technology device now because it came out in the 1960s so now we are in 2015, everything in technology have either changed or updated/upgraded so they came out with a new device for Deaf or Hard of Hearing people calls Video Relay Service VRS where Deaf or Hard of Hearing would be able to use the video phone device on their television and when they make a call to the hearing people they would dial the numbers of whoever they want to call then there would be interpreter on split window on the television who will be their interpreter that assists them. On Video Phone when Deaf or Hard of Hearing make a call there would be an interpreter that shows up on the television in a split window that would interpret what Deaf or Hard of Hearing people are saying in sign language then interpret the sign language to the hearing callers by speaking what the Deaf or Hard of Hearing are saying in sign language and interpret what the hearing caller says to the Deaf or Hard of Hearing people in sign language.
That is what Video Relay Service (VRS) is, there are a few of companies who provides video phone equipment to Deaf or Hard of Hearing and give them their own phone numbers that they can give out to anyone who they would like to call them which when the hearing people call via Video Relay Service using their own homeland phone or cell phone it would alert them with flashing light on the video phone device to let them know that somebody is calling Deaf or Hard of Hearing people along with the interpreter waiting for Deaf or Hard of Hearing to accept the call. Video Relay Service is very advanced in technology actually, especially for Deaf or Hard of Hearing as it makes their life easier because they wouldn’t have to rely on somebody to call for them anymore or having to rely on the TTY machine which is a pain in the butt most of the times by the way and having Video Relay Service (VRS) is much easier because they are able to communicate more smoothly than ever as on TTY the caller would have to wait patiently until you finish typing what you want to tell the caller then wait patiently for what the caller are saying into the text on the device so now instead through Video Relay Service (VRS) the live interpreter would interpret as Deaf or Hard of Hearing signs at same time so no more having to be patient on both ends.
Video Relay Service providers are under control of Federal Communication Commission (FCC) just as Text Telephone (TTY) was but under ruling of FCC most of Video Relay Services providers offer free video phone devices to any Deaf or Hard of Hearing people if they apply for video phone from whichever video relay service providers that they would like to use as there are a few of video relay service providers which is a good thing because this means it gives Deaf or Hard of Hearing people some options to choose and not only that it helps that all of video relay service providers compete with each others to make video relay service’s video phone better everyday. Most of the reason that under the ruling of Federal Communication Commission that most of video relay service providers to offer their video phone free is because they are being paid to do so by Federal Communication Commission (FCC) themselves, as every interpreters who interpret in sign language (ASL – American Sign Language) for Deaf or Hard of Hearing people makes almost a dollar per minute which that means the interpreters are getting good paid because usually Deaf or Hard of Hearing call for more than two or three hours so that would means $180 dollars every three hours or four so basically interpreter would bring in almost or over a thousand dollars per day if the information for the rates stated by FCC is still current at the moment and so obviously it make sense that most of video relay services offers free. Back in early 2000s there were annoyingly numbers of video relay service providers as it was almost too much options to choose so just a couple of years ago or three if my math is correct the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) decided to cut rates per minute pay to Video Relay Service providers so this caused several providers to go out of business and now there are good enough numbers of Video Relay Service providers to choose today for Deaf or Hard of Hearing people because in the early time of the birth of video relay service industry, there were too many of people founding video relay provider business only because they knows they would get a large amount of money which is obvious so in the end Federal Communication Commission decided that only to allow some of the providers to keep the business especially the ones who is truly in it for Deaf and Hard of Hearing community only unlike several providers at that time of the video relay service industry booming.
So now with Video Relay Service for Deaf or Hard of Hearing makes it equally accessibility for them because before they was constantly oppressed by the hearing people because they were able to have the accessibility to something that the Deaf or Hard of Hearing people couldn’t have the access to by being able to make a call. For the hearing people to have phone hooked up, it would be through dial-up connection but for video relay service which is a phone for the Deaf or Hard of Hearing is hooked up on the internet connection and with the technology soaring everyday the Deaf or Hard of Hearing doesn’t have to rely on the provider’s video phone hooked to their television with internet cable anymore because Video Relay Service now offers mobile which that means Deaf or Hard of Hearing can make a call using video relay service on their smartphone such as Iphone or Android with the video relay service providers app which is fantastic so this means all Deaf or Hard of Hearing people have the entire accessibility that the hearing people has for making a call now everywhere. Anyway now you know what Video Relay Service (VRS) or Video Phone (VP) provided by VRS now and if you would like to know more about them then I recommend you to read about them on the Wiki which I am giving you the link to the Video Relay Service on Wikipedia here (click here).
If you are Deaf or Hard of Hearing and didn’t know about Video Relay Service or if you know somebody who is Deaf or Hard of Hearing that don’t have a way of communication through phone independently or if you have a family or friends I suggest that you help them to get Video Relay Service right away because it is the most needed for Deaf or Hard of Hearing. I am hard of hearing myself so obviously I use video relay service to call everyone which is unbelievable because I am more independent now that I don’t have to rely on my mother to call somebody for me because it is awkward for me to ask my mother to call somebody for me and tell them something that I don’t want my mother to know or such so with video relay service it gives me a way of being able to call people such as my family, my doctor, 911 emergency, my friends or somebody. Here how it works to get video phone from video relay services of your choice, you pick whichever you are interested in then you would apply for video phone from the video relay service provider or if you prefer to get mobile app instead of having a video phone then apply for that but I suggest that you apply for both video phone and mobile from the video relay service provider. Once you have applied you would have to wait for at least about a couple of weeks then you will have one of installer from the video relay service to visit your house to install the video phone to your television for you then set it up because it require an installer to make the video phone to work but after you applied for video phone be sure to keep checking your e-mail from an employee at the video relay service provider that you choose to go with and from there in the e-mail they will discuss with you about when they are coming to your house to install the video phone for you also they will have a talk about your home location because they want to make sure that they have the right house to visit but the installer that comes to your house to install the video phone will be either Deaf or Hard of Hearing where he or she will be communicating with you in sign language.
Here are few of the video relay service providers that I would recommend as they have a few but I am only going to recommend the ones that I am with to that I trust them to give you the great service that they gave me so here is it.
- Purple Communication – My favorite video relay provider as they always provides you the best interpreters as possible for you to be able to communicate smoothly although Purple is the second leading video relay service and famous Deaf celebrities can vouch me for you such as Katie Leclerc aka Daphne character in ABC show Switched at Birth.
- Sorenson Communication – Sorenson VRS is the leader of Video Relay Service as they have over 80% control of video relay service industry, Sorenson VRS provides good interpreters along with alright quality but the quality of the device or interpreters cannot dominate Purple Communication.
- ZVRS – FCC certified VRS provider who provides good quality of both video phone and interpreters but not as professional as both Purple or Sorenson VRS as ZVRS are known for their devices – I consider them as third option to go with. Sean Berdy aka Emmett character from ABC Switched At Birth supports this provider.
- ConvoRelay – ConvoRelay is probably the only video relay service company owned by Deaf which that means ConvoRelay is owned by the person who is Deaf. Only ConvoRelay provides is their interpreters because they don’t have their own video phone so you would have to get video phone from either the providers I listed above to use ConvoRelay service but they do have their own app that you can use them as your video relay service. I would go with ConvoRelay if they were my last resort.
Bottom line. Purple Communication provide 1-number where you can give out a number to all of your family or friends so they can call you but with Sorenson Communication is confusing because they give you number for each product so this means one number for your PC, another number for your Video Phone, another number for your mobile devices so if I was you I would go with Purple but I am not choosing for you so you choose which one yourself. To make the right decision I would recommend that you should check out every one of them through on the internet by either on YouTube to compare them or ask some of Deaf or Hard of Hearing people for their opinions on some of these video relay service providers before you make the decision for which provider you would go with although you CAN have more than one provider such as Purple SmartVP and Sorenson NTouch hooked to your television. Only thing I don’t like about ZVRS is that some of their products costs some money which that is why I said I would choose ZVRS as my third option although their PC or mobile are free.
I hope I have cleared most of the things about both Video Relay Service (VRS) and Video Phone (VP) for some of you who wondered what they are. If you have any more questions about video relay service or video phone then please know that you are more than welcome to contact me through here by going to the contact tab at the top of the website which will be sent via e-mail. Thank you very much for your time reading this article and I hope that every one of you have a great night! Also please be safe wherever all of you are at or be safe whatever it is that you all are planning on to do for the night or in the morning whichever it is over there and stay awesome my friends!
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- Joshie.
