Federal Relay Service

The Federal Relay Service (FedRelay) is the only federal government telecommunications service contracted through the General Services Administration that allows Federal eployees [sic] who are deaf, hard-of-hearing, deaf/blind, or have speech disabiliites [sic] to have equal communication access. This contract provides a package of services so that Federal employees may conduct official duties and become functionally equivalent. The FedRelay also allows the general public to conduct business with the federal government and its agencies. Calls are relayed using specially trained Communications Assistants (CA). The CA simply acts as a transparent conduit for the transmittal of information. All calls are strictly confidential and no records of any conversations are maintained. Federal Relay provides quality telecommunication access with the latest technology and services available.

Federal Relay is available in two forms:

Telephonically-based Services

• Text Telephone (TTY) / ASCII / Voice
• Speech to Speech (STS)
• Captioned Telephone (CapTel)

Internet-based Services

• Video Relay Service (VRS)
• Video Remote Interpreting (VRI)
• IP Relay
• Relay Conference Captioning (RCC)
• Captioned Telephone (IP CapTel)