Helpful Tip with Automated Telephone Systems

With so many automated phone systems in place, TTY users may experience problems trying to navigate through a series of telephone menu options (such as, “Press 1 for this option, press 2 for this option…”).

In some cases, the automated phone system may require DTMF tones (instead of TTY tones) in order to work properly. DTMF tones are the sounds that a telephone makes when numbers are dialed. These tones are different than the Baudot-based tones that a TTY usually makes.  All direct connect TTYs from Ultratec can generate DTMF tones by using Follow on Dialing capabilities (see example, below).

Problem:

An automated phone system asks you to press the number “6” to select an option. You press “6” on your TTY keyboard, but the phone system doesn’t recognize your selection.

Solution:

On your direct connect TTY : Instead of just pressing the “6” key, try doing a DIAL sequence (such as CTRL and DIAL ), press the number “6” and then the ENTER key. This will generate the proper DTMF tone for whichever number key you press.

On a TTY in acoustic mode, just press the number “6” directly on the telephone keypad (instead of on the TTY keyboard).

Please refer to the “Follow-on Dialing” section of your TTY user manual for details.