Attitudes and Impressions toward Receiving Phone Calls Made with a Voice Output Device in the United States and Japan

Abstract

Communication by telephone is a necessary part of daily living. However, for people with hearing and speech impairments, it is often difficult to communicate by telephone in the usual way. To solve this problem, alternative methods for using telephones have been developed. In the United States, people with hearing and speech impairments have TTsrrDDs (text telephones or telecommunication devices for the deaf) to communicate with other people. In addition, there are message relay services that make it possible for TTrrDD users to communicate with people who do not have such devices. In Japan, where there are few such systems, facsimile (fax) machines are a more popular method for telecommunication than TTsffDDs for people with hearing and speech impairments. However, it is not easy to communicate in real time using the fax machine. In addition, it is impossible to communicate directly via fax with people who do not themselves have a fax machine. Certainly, for people with hearing impairments, TTsrrDDs and fax machines can be useful mechanisms for communication. Many people cannot speak, but they can hear. For people with speech impairments, voice output devices are more convenient than TTs/ TDDs or fax machines because there are no restrictions as to who can receive the message. There are many studies of communication via voice output devices. Some evaluate their intelligibility; 1-3 others study their acceptability. 4,5 Mirenda and Beukelman designed a study to compare intelligibility of single words and sentences