CallTTY: Call a TTY in Australia from the Web

CallTTY is a service that allows anyone to call any TTY in Australia (that is on a landline, not a mobile) and have a baudot code conversation with that TTY via a chat applet. A deaf to hearing method of phone communication is also supported. Please see below for more information on this.

No record of your conversation is kept by CallTTY, although the time and the phone number you dialed is kept. If you wish a copy of your conversation you can select and copy the text in the white box and transfer it to any call logging programs you keep.

CallTTY is a PCTTY project which is a freeware Windows TTY emulator available for all.

Features:

• Call any TTY on a landline in Australia: The PCTTY bank allows anyone in the world to call any landline in Australia for, presently, an unlimited amount of time. They can call a TTY and have a baudot code conversation with the TTY on the other end of the phone call.
• Issue DTMF tones for IVR systems: You can issue DTMF tones through PCTTY by hitting the DTMF buttons at the bottom of the web page. This allows you to communicate with IVR systems.
• Google translation services are offered in the PCTTY chat webpage. You can translate foreign language text that comes from the TTY to English or any of 40 languages Google supports. You can type English and have it translated into a foreign language to be sent back to the TTY user also.
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  The following instructions will briefly tell you how to do this:

  • Turn on GoogleTrans by hitting the GoogleTrans link at the top of the PCTTY chat webpage. Waiting until the option is ON. This may take several seconds.
  • Hover your cursor over any word in the webpage for, say, 2 seconds. A popup will appear with a foreign language translation of the word ( or for the first 500 characters of any selected text) your cursor resides over. Move the cursor to get rid of the popup window.
  • You can change the language by bringing up a popup (simply position the cursor over any word in the webpage). The first line in the popup is a link (ie., ENGLISH:FRENCH). The first line tells you, in this instance, the original language is ENGLISH and that it has been translated into FRENCH. Click on this link and then select the FROM Language and then the TO language in the popup that follows. Google supports over 40 languages. Any language that Google supports is supported by the PCTTY system.
  • The popup effect works on the INPUT FIELD where you type text to be sent to the TTY as well. Type in some English, for instance, hover the cursor over the English in the INPUT FIELD, and a foreign language translation popup will appear WITH the option to replace the English in the INPUT FIELD with the translated text (diacritical marks will be stripped out). Your translated language must use the latin alphabet.
• Text To Speech: You can type a sentence in the bottom line of the PCTTY chat webpage (turn on the option first) and a computer voice will speak what you type to the person at the other end of the phone. In this way deaf or mute people can 'talk' to a hearing person on any touchtone (landline) phone in Australia.
• Predictive text and/or SMS text is recognised: The hearing person at the other end of the phone can 'predictive text' type back a message back to the deaf person, so as to effect deaf to hearing communication over the phone.
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  In order to issue a predictive text message, the hearing person needs to do the following:

  • Type one phone keystroke per letter on the phone keypad. (the PCTTY program will guess what you meant).
  • Hit the '*' (asterick) key under the 7 key to signal an END OF WORD has been reached.
  • Listen to the phone. PCTTY will speak the word back to you. If PCTTY says the right word continue onto the next word. If PCTTY does not say the right word, you have the following options:
    • If it speaks something that is not a recognisable word, hit the '0' key and try again. The word you typed on the phone will be removed from the chat applet (where the deaf person is).
    • If the word spoken is similar to the one you typed (like 'his' when you meant 'hit'), hit the '*' (asterick) key again. The next similar word to what was just spoken will then be spoken. If it is the right one just type the next word. Most times you will only have one choice but some times you will have 2 or 3 choices. You can always hit '0' and try again.
    • To type numbers type a '#' key and then the number, ending with a '*'
    • If the word you wish to type is not in the dictionary (like 'Joyce' a common name), use ordinary SMS syntax to type the word out. 555 666 999 111 33 is the SMS syntax for the word 'Joyce'. PCTTY will type 'Joyce' on the PCTTY screen for the deaf person. As always hit '*' to signal an end of word and listen to the word PCTTY thinks you meant.
    • Tip: When you need to hit the same key twice, as if you were typing 'beer' or (b:22 e:33 e:33 r:777) (while doing nonpredictive smsing) wait around 2 seconds between the first 33 and the second 33. PCTTY will recognise your word better. If using predictive text don't worry about this.
    In this way a quickly trained hearing person can communicate with their deaf friend or relative while on any landline in Australia. The deaf person can be using the PCTTY chat webpage.