Second Class Citizens?
An Op-Ed Editorial from Dr. Z

Why do phone calls from a non-VP-200 phone do not ring a VP-200 phone?

If you have an OJO, MVP or a Z series videophone, you sometimes need to call a friend using your non-VP-200 videophone, you kind of expect your friend to answer it, but instead, an interpreter comes on. What have you done wrong?

The answer is you have done no wrong. It is because Sorenson, the provider of the VP-200 phone for your friend has not given (or put up) your friend’s VP-200 phone number on the national data base. People ask why aren’t they doing it. We have not had an answer to this yet. It may be a good idea for you to ask Sorenson yourself to get an answer as to why your VP-200 does not get calls from your friend’s OJO, MVP or Z phones.

The number has to be on the national data base in order for the VP-200 to ring. If you have a VP-200 call another VP-200 it can ring. This again does not seem to be fair, or “functionally equivalent”. We are not being treated as equal citizens as compared to our hearing counterparts who can receive calls from any cell phone made by any manufacturer or service provider.

Are we deaf and hard of hearing people being treated as second-class citizens?