Voice carry over (VCO) is for those deaf and hard-of-hearing VRS users who can speak well enough for the hearing person on the other side to understand them. They still need an interpreter to interpret the hearing person’s voice dialogue.

The old and traditional way to do VCO required 2 lines (2-line VCO) for the deaf and hard of hearing person. One line to make the call and the other line was a regular phone line to speak back to the hearing person. This is a very cumbersome and costly method and required some time to set up the call because the video interpreter would have to work on connecting the call to the telephone.

The latest development (pioneered by ZVRS) is VCO Plus, which is one-line VCO. It does not need the second line for the phone as voice communication is handled through the Z-Phones (Z-150, Z-340 and Z-Ojo) All of these phones have microphones built into them. There is no delay in setting up the call as the the voice portion goes through the microphone to the hearing person. When an incoming call comes in, all that is needed is to press a button to answer the call and enable the microphone on the phone and conversation starts right away. No need to wait for the second phone to be set up. This is almost real time and people who have tried this rave about this.

This is an example of how technology can enable communication and make things even more functionally equivalent.

Dr. Z cares about your communication access.