Category Archives: Editorials/Guest Blogs

An Article-A Peek Inside My Z4 Life

Now that a great thing is out of the bag! Dr. Z sometimes tries his best to be impartial, but sometimes, one needs to cross the line of impartiality to tell the world about something he has been with the past few months and couldn’t resist holding it back.

Dr. Z has been a beta tester for the Z4 product the past few months-he has used the Z4 when he traveled all over giving his talks on numbering–used it in countless airports and hotels (while it was a beta product!)

Dr. Z has been in the technology field for over 40 years–he has white hair, attesting to his age in technology. He knows the difference between a good product and a great one and the Z4 product is one that falls into the “great” category of a product. Doctors often prescribe medicine or treatments for their patients. Dr. Z is prescribing all video communication users (VRS and point to point) to use the Z4 product. For starters, it works on a PC or a Mac. You can build your contact list on the web or on the Z4, and it will be saved either way and will always be there. If you want to show a web site while you are in communication mode, the Z4 makes it easy to show this page. If you want to see the face of a hearing person who has a webcam while doing a VRS call, the Z4 can show three video shots, yourself, the interpreter and the hearing person you are talking to. Finally, it can record your video conversations–you can save it and send the conversation as an attachment to an email. This is scratching the surface with more to come…

The secret to the completeness of this product is that it was designed by deaf people for use by deaf and hard of hearing people. When a shoemaker makes shoes for himself, the shoes fit perfectly. The same is true of the Z4.

Over the holidays, my wife and I were delayed in Las Vegas. We needed to reach her deaf mother to let her know of the delay. At that time, her Blackberry was down–remember the great Blackberry outage at that time? Dr. Z immediately thought of his Mac in his backpack and pulled it out and with the Z4, and no plugs, no cords (the Mac had a good wifi connection at the airport) and she was able to connect with her mother to let her know of her delay. It is that spontaneous event that makes the Z4 a great product.

You can download the Z4 at www.zvrs.com. Try it, you’ll like it, believe me.

Dr. Z cares about your communication access.

Disclosure: Dr. Z is a contractor working with CSDVRS on several projects.

Guest Article-A Peek Inside My Z Life

A Peek Inside My Z Life

by Karen Putz
A Deaf Mom Shares Her World (link to blog)
Deaf & Hard of Hearing People at Work (link to website)

My husband and I are deaf and we have three deaf and hard of hearing kids. A lot of people are surprised to learn that we have four videophones in our home. We really only need two, but here, I’m going to give you a peek inside my Z Life and you’ll see how we use all four.

Every morning, once the kids and the hubby are out the door, my day begins with ZVRS. I work as a Sales Manager for Illinois and Zvrs Manager for National VCO. My main videophone is the Z-150 made by Tandberg. You can read about how the Z-150 Changed My Life — I used to hate the phone and now I call people all day long. When a hearing person calls me, I slip my headset on, press a button and answer with, “Hello! This is Karen!” When a deaf or hard of hearing friend calls me, I sit back and chat directly with them.

The Z-340 is parked in my kitchen. It is connected via wifi and it is the family phone. I can do dishes and chat at the same time. The Z-340 can be moved from room to room, even in the middle of a call. I have brought my Z-340 outside into the backyard to share my newly-planted flowers with a friend. When we have parties, the Z-340 is a big hit. We have connected with other parties in other states at the same time. We once connected with my husband’s college roommate for two hours during a party– passing the Z-340 around so that everyone could have a chance to talk. We can also hook the Z-340 up to the big screen TV so that everyone can view the conversation at once.

The Z-OJO is my main videophone for new customers to call me and they can leave messages. Soon, all the Z videophones will have an answering machine for point-to-point calls. Having two videophones in my office does come in handy though, there are times I run them both at the same time, getting information on one call and talking to someone else on another.

When I travel, I use the Z4 on my laptop and it is available for Mac users as well. I can connect with two Z4 users at the same time and have a three-way chat. I can connect with a co-worker on one, then switch to Zvrs to make a call and gather information while my co-worker is still connected to me. I can run a presentation while talking to a new customer and we can both view it. Best of all, when I’m the road and someone is calling my Z videophones at home, I receive a Z-Alert to my pager that tells me about the call and includes a phone number. I then use the Z4 to call that person back. I have all “My Contacts” loaded to all of my Z videophones, so I’m never without a number!

You, too, can have a Z Life!

For more information or to learn more about VCO Plus, contact Karen Putz at kputz@zvrs.com

Dr. Z cares about your communication access.

Disclosure: Karen Putz is the sales manager for ZVRS covering the state of Illinois and handles National VCO Marketing. Dr. Z is a contractor working with CSDVRS on several projects.

Editorial #29-Flood of Letters Sent to FCC Supporting NAD, TDI and other’s Petition re Not Limiting VRS Calls

On January 28th, the NAD, TDI and other national organizations petitioned the FCC to reconsider the limitation they imposed on certain types of VRS calls such as conference calls and calls to pager company providers.

The result has been a lot of letters to the FCC from the deaf and hard of hearing community supporting the petition filed with the FCC. This is unprecedented as Dr. Z has been following the FCC’s Electronic Comment Filing System for quite some time and there has not been much traffic on this until the response to this petition. This shows how the community feels about not being functionally equivalent and that our rights have been taken away. If you feel your rights are being infringed, then you should tell the FCC why you support the NAD petition and why you feel you should not be limited as to the type of VRS calls you make.

Link to the NAD petition: NAD Petition

Filing to support the petition: File comments supporting the NAD Petition

Dr. Z cares about your communication access.

Editorial #28-CSDVRS (ZVRS) Files Petition and Sends Letter to FCC on Porting Issue Which Concerns Sorenson’s Treatment of Deaf and Hard of Hearing People’s Videophones

A provider should care about consumers of its service and do everything to service their consumers. If a consumer decides to go to another provider, it is the consumer’s right to do so and the provider giving up the service needs to make it as seamless and not problematic for the consumer who makes this choice. Unfortunately, this has not been happening of late. It has occurred enough times in order for CSDVRS (ZVRS) to file a Petition of Expedited Declaratory Ruling with the FCC. In addition, a letter on this matter was sent to Joel Gurin, Chief of the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau at the FCC.

When a consumer decides to port (or move) his phone number from the old provider to a new provider, he/she is required to fill out a LOA (Letter of Authorization) to make this possible. The VRS company (the new provider) submits this LOA to a servicing company who handles the porting. The servicing company then issues a FOC Date (Firm Order Commitment) to the old provider and the new provider informing them when the port is to take place. On that date, the old provider disables the number, and the new provider activates the number. In normal circumstances, it can take several days to a week or more for this to happen. What has seemed to happen is that when Sorenson as the old provider somehow finds out about the planned port well before the FOC Date, it immediately shuts down the VP-200 before the FOC Date, leaving the deaf/hard of hearing person stuck without a videophone. In recent days, when this has happened, the deaf/hard of hearing person contacts Sorenson to ask them to hold off the deactivation until the FOC Date. Sorenson has refused to comply with their requests. This means Sorenson is leaving the deaf/hard of hearing person without access to 911 service. CSDVRS feels this is wrong, like anybody with a heart and mind out there–you can’t take away a person’s lifeline to the world, thus submitting this petition and letter.

This is not functionally equivalent—hearing people, when they switch cellphone providers go through the same thing and the providers comply with the process, including honoring the FOC Date.

This is the link to the petition: Petition for Expedited Declaratory Ruling

This is the link to the FCC letter: Letter to Joel Gurin, FCC Chief of Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau

Dr. Z cares about your communication access.

Editorial #27-What Happened to Functional Equivalency? Are Our Rights being Taken Away?

I posted this before, and I am posting this again here. This is part of the FCC regulations that outline the functional equivalency standard for relay services (while it says “TRS Rules”, VRS applies here.)

TRS Rules 47 C.F.R. § 64.601 (a) (15) (emphasis added)

Telecommunications relay services (TRS). Telephone transmission services that provide the ability for an individual who has a hearing or speech disability to engage in communication by wire or radio with a hearing individual in a manner that is functionally equivalent to the ability of an individual who does not have a hearing or speech disability to communicate using voice communication services by wire or radio. Such term includes services that enable two-way communication between an individual who uses a text telephone or other nonvoice terminal device and an individual who does not use such a device, speech-to-speech services, video relay services and non-English relay services. TRS supersedes the terms “dual party relay system,” “message relay services,” and “TDD Relay.”

Imagine a scenario when a hearing person picks up the phone and makes a call, and the phone company interrupts and says you cannot make this kind of call. Of course, it wouldn’t happen to a hearing person. But it could happen anytime soon for deaf and hard of hearing people using VRS. The FCC has given instructions to NECA (the organization paying reimbursements for VRS services to VRS providers) to disallow reimbursement for certain types of phone calls.

I cannot imagine the government intruding on our right to communicate like a hearing person. The law or the regulation above is very clear. If they don’t do it to a hearing person, then they can’t do it to a deaf or hard of hearing person. It is up to the deaf or hard of hearing person to determine the kind of calls he or she wants to make. If NECA continues to deny reimbursement for calls such as conference calls between deaf people and hearing people which in its simplest form is a legitimate relay call, it could lead VRS companies to deny processing those calls. Dr. Z is upset and is urging the FCC to take a look at this. This is taking a leap backwards–black people fought to get their civil rights–we deaf and hard of hearing people fought to get our rights via the ADA and all this is taking some of our rights away.

Today several VRS companies filed this letter on this matter. (link to letter)

Let us hope that the FCC is going to reconsider some of this.

Dr. Z cares about your communication access.

Editorial #26-On Martin Luther King Day 2010-“I Have a Dream”

Today is Martin Luther King’s Birthday–I make it a habit to read his “I Have a Dream” speech on this day.

I am posting an excerpt from his speech as follows:

“…Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.
And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…”

“Created equal”—this calls for FULL functional equivalency in the VRS world—Dr. Z is calling on all VRS providers to come on board and pursue this goal.

The full text and video of his speech can be seen at this link: MLK “I Have a Dream” speech.

Dr. Z cares about your communication access.

Editorial #25-NAD on Behalf of Consumer Groups File Information About a Meeting with the FCC

Rosaline Crawford, the Director of the NAD Law and Advocacy Center filed an ex parte notice on January 13, 2010 about a meeting she had with the FCC on January 12th on VRS issues. She was representing several other consumer gropups and the link to the notice is as follows: Link to NAD Ex Parte Notice. An ex parte notice means something that is presented by one party without hearing from the other side. The FCC requires everyone to file such a notice when people meet with the FCC. This way, all parties involved will know what has been discussed. This makes the process as transparent as possible. Three (3) issues were discussed as follows:

Toll Free Numbers

It was urged that the FCC take a position on toll free numbers. In addition, toll free numbers should be made a part of the national data base. It reminded the FCC that 3 months remain before the FCC’s waiver on this ruling expires. Dr. Z agrees that 800 numbers need to be part of the national data base. This way, everything will be functionally equivalent, just like what hearing people have.

VRS Reform, Rate Methodology, and Rates

It was urged that the FCC institute a new rulemaking process to follow up on what took place at the December 17, 2009 VRS Workshop. This will allow all interested parties to make their views known. Dr. Z agrees with this, but there is also the question of whether there is enough time before July 1st (when the new rates are supposed to go into effect) for the process to run its course. It was noted that other groups should be made part of the workshops (such as interpreters) and there could be tension among the various stakeholders.

Consumer Complaints about Blocked VRS Calls

It was noted that some calls are not being connected. In addition, NECA (the organization that reimburses VRS providers for services rendered on behalf of the FCC) is denying reimbursement for certain VRS calls. (CSDVRS filed a letter recently on this issue, too Link to CSDVRS letter.) Dr. Z feels that the deaf/hard of hearing caller makes the determination as to what call he makes is legal and proper, not a 3rd party which is detached from the situation and is not in a position to assess the critical nature of such calls. Hearing people are not being penalized the same way–in this case, this is not functionally equivalent for deaf and hard of hearing people.

It is Dr. Z’s sincere hope that the FCC will listen to this ex parte notice and follow up on this.

Dr. Z (and the FCC) cares about your communication access.

Editorial #24-Dr. Z’s New Year Resolutions for the VRS Industry for 2010

Happy New Year once again !!!

Dr. Z is here with his New Year’s Resolutions for the video relay service.

1) The video relay service as a whole shall continue to improve, have enhancements that go a long way towards making communication more accessible.

2) There shall be more cooperation between VRS providers in exchanging information so that all equipment can freely communicate with once another, without consumers getting confused as to why such a feature works with one device but not the other?

3) The FCC shall continue to issue orders that enhance functional equivalency of VRS.

4) We shall continue to see competition, but not be undercut by tactics by providers that instill fear, uncertainty and doubt in customers. We should not be afraid to make consumer-based decisions on our individual needs in communication.

5) VRS providers should lend a strong ear to consumer needs and not arbitrarily make changes and recommendations that restrict access.

6) VRS providers shall continue to enhance careers of deaf and hard of hearing employees and put them in decision-making positions. Boards of such companies should have deaf and hard of hearing people on them.

7) Fraud is not an option—VRS providers shall practice zero-tolerance when it comes to fraud.

8) Open standards such as H.323, SIP, H.263 and H.264 shall be followed to the letter by all providers. De-facto standards that affect interoperability should not be an option.

9) VRS providers should begin thinking of some sort of a industry association where there is a body insuring all companies work together to insure their service and equipment is interoperable.

10) VRS companies shall invest more in the community they serve.

Dr. Z cares about your communication access.

Editorial #23-Information and Thoughts on International VRS Calls

In Dr. Z’s travels across the country the past 2 months, he met a lot of appreciative consumers who valued the ability to talk to their friends and families using the Spanish VRS service. Some French-speaking consumers asked Dr. Z whether French would be added to the service–Dr. Z based on current rules, said this was not possible. This is usually for calls to Canada and Haiti which has a French-speaking population.

The rules are clear–VRS calls must either begin or end in the United States. For example, someone from Canada cannot call a VRS service in the United States to call someone else in Canada. But if the person receiving the call is in the United States, it is OK. The same is true for someone in the United States calling someone else in Canada through the relay service.

It is understandable to offer Spanish VRS calls in the United States–but what about other languages? How can we handle this? Is this functionally equivalent? How can we staff interpreters who can understand LSQ (French/Quebec Sign Language)? This is the tip of an iceberg but we need to empathize with our deaf and hard of hearing colleagues who want to speak to their non-English speaking relatives in other countries. Maybe there would be technology down the road making this possible?

Dr. Z cares about your communication access.