Phone Home
Hamilton Relay helps make the connection
If you had trouble hearing or speaking over the telephone, how would you order a pizza? Make a doctor’s appointment? Call your mom just to say hi?
You’d use telecommunications relay, a free service that enables telephone communications for people who are deaf, hard of hearing or speech disabled.
Hamilton Relay, a division of Nebraska-based Hamilton Telecommunications, began operating Georgia’s telecommunication relay service in April and recently entered into a partnership with Quick Start and Albany Technical College to train employees at their new Albany call center.
To make a relay call, people with hearing or speech difficulties can use a text telephone, also known as a teletypewriter, or TTY, to dial 7-1-1, a nationwide relay number. A Communication Assistant answers and relays the call, reading typed messages aloud to hearing persons and typing spoken words for the TTY user.
Communication Assistants have a challenging position as the invisible link between callers. They have to have excellent memories, speaking voices, spelling and keyboarding skills. The Federal Communications Commission mandates they maintain confidentiality, and that they type at least 60 words per minute.
Hamilton Relay has an extensive company training program, but to get new employees up to speed before beginning company training, Hamilton executives turned to Quick Start.
“Quick Start’s ability to jump in and develop a new typing curriculum has helped us tremendously,” said Senior Relay Manager Robert Patterson. “The skills our employees are gaining through Albany Tech and Quick Start will help them achieve career goals.”
Quick Start is training more than 100 Communication Assistants in everything from service skills to keyboarding. Because of the unique requirements of this position, the Quick Start team developed new keyboarding training, writing and recording scripts and editing them at incrementally increasing speed levels to help improve trainees’ typing proficiencies.
“A customer-driven focus is key to everything Hamilton Relay does,” said Patterson. “Quick Start has taken that same concept and created a course curriculum specific to the needs of our trainees. It’s an excellent opportunity for us.”
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