CapTel Captioned Telephones

1) This phone is an excellent option for someone who has hearing loss to the point of needing captioning but had normal hearing most of their life. My grandmother can't hear much when someone calls her, but she still likes to listen to the sound of people's voices. This way she can hear your voice, and then she can look at the captions to figure out what you are saying. She speaks normally to respond to you. It is basically like a regular telephone call, you talk back and forth, but with the addition of the fact that people who call my grandmother have their words captioned for her to read. 2) My grandmother is 94. She can't figure out how to use most of the features, but the current call captioning automatically shows up on a large screen in large print, so she can just pick up the phone and follow the conversation. We also programmed everyone she knows as contacts into the phone, so the person's name will show up on the caller ID when they call. 3) As with any captioning technology, there are delays in transcription and some inaccuracies. I do find that the CapTel captions are more accurate and slightly faster than the closed captions shown with our local TV news programs. (I use the local news closed captions for comparison because the local news has live captioning as reporters speak). I do find that the captions are more accurate if I make it a point to try to speak extremely clearly and to spell out any words that would be difficult or unclear for someone to understand. For example, if I am speaking about one of grandma's doctors, after I say the doctor's name, I spell out the last name so it can be accurately transcribed. 4) My grandmother has the cheapest option - she has one telephone line only, so anyone calling her has to dial an 800# for their call to be transcribed. If she dials out, the calls are automatically transcribed. There are other options for someone with 2 telephone lines or high speed internet service, and with those options people who call in do not have to use the 800# to be transcribed. 5) There was a very good satisfaction guarantee with no questions asked if the phone needed to be returned when we bought the phone, this was one of the reasons we tried CapTel, and it has worked out wonderfully for us. 6) We did have a problem with the first phone after about 3 months. CapTel immediately shipped a new phone with return postage for the defective old phone, so we were quite pleased with the speed and ease of the warranty return policy. I am not positive, I would have to double check their website, but I think the warranty is good for 3 years.