>> given up on
 >> hearing 'aids' (there has to be a better more apt name
 >> for those
 >> things...)

 >  BM> That's all they are.

 >  Some folks seem to see them as 'cures' ...

So they would seem to the others until each discovers, one way or another,
that they're not.

 >  BM> The TTY numbers that I call from my computer in hyperterminal mode
 >  BM> function like online chat, so there's no operator at all, just me on
 >  BM> my keyboard and the callee on his.  That works all right, AFAIC.

 >  Really? NO Operator in betweeN???? Well then! ha!

You should be able to try this out for yourself by calling any business
that advertises a TTY number.

 > That means the
 > hearies in my life have no excuse wrt 'talking through
 > a operator."
 > the only PROBLEM is.. if you're going to call them
 > don't they have to
 > be online too? hmm.

Yes, they have to have some kind of setup; I don't know whether it
necessarily constitutes "being online," but they need a setup
that will ring or otherwise signal to them if you call, so they can then
answer.  One of the sites mentioned when researching the phone for work was
www.harriscomm.com/catalog/ and another was www.hearmore.com; maybe they
have descriptions of what is available.

 > When I first used a tty it was via the computer but
 > the operartor
 > typed back to me what the other person said on their
 > phone.

Maybe some business do it that way; I've only run into the ones that are
like an online chat on both sides, with no intervening operator.

 > What I like about the tty phone is at least they get
 > to hear your
 > voice. My sister likes that (and hates to type btw.).

 >  BM> At work, they spoke of getting a device that would display text on my
 >  BM> end, and I could speak to the other person, presumably, although here
 >  BM> an operator was required to type the other person's message to me.


 > Nod. That is what I had before I got the tty voice
 > over phone.

Well, I'm not at all familiar with any of this stuff; I thought that WAS a
voice carry over.

 > ...........

 >> Can you help it though? THEY put it there. The ones
 >> who refuse to meet
 >> us half way with our efforts to ease communication
 >> with them.

I think not.  Bright inventors came up with these potentially useful ideas
which would be a boon to those who need them.  Those who won't have
anything to do with it don't want it there, if they are expected to use it
once in a while.

 >> Perhaps the better thing to do is to communicate the
 >> way you are able
 >> with those willing and write off the rest who are too
 >> self centered to
 >> even try.

 >  BM> Sometimes you don't have a choice.

 >  True. The biggest complaint is 'the operator keeps
 > asking me to talk
 > slower. Well I can understand that. I talk too fast
 > too. Back when I
 > used the puter tty set up I sometimes chatted with the
 > op (not suppsed
 > to but anyway... I had been asking for information so
 > it was okay)...
 > one op told me some people expect you to know how to
 > spell their names
 > if they're giving a name and get mad if you ask them
 > to please spell i
 > tout... so they can type it. I can't understand people
 > getting mad at
 > the ops.. they provide a virtually free service after
 > all.

It's free to you, maybe, but not to those people.  After all, they have to
speak slowly and *spell*--like young schoolchildren, for heaven's sake.

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