Information on Typetalk

You will find this factsheet useful if:

• You have a text phone and wish to contact a hearing person with a regular telephone
• You have a regular telephone and wish to contact a deaf speech impaired person with a text phone
• Wish to know about TextDirect Billing Service
• Wish to know how to contact Emergency Services if you are a text phone user

Typetalk is the deaf-hearing relay service set up by the RNID and British Telecom.  The service enables deaf/speech impaired and hearing people to communicate with one another using voice telephones and a text phone (minicom).

A Typetalk operator facilitates the call and relays what the hearing person is saying in text to the Deaf person, and back to the hearing person in speech.

As Typetalk calls can often take longer than regular telephone calls, BT offer a 60% rebate on the text part of the call only.

The TextDirect Service is available 24 hours per day, 365 days of the year.

How do I use TextDirect?

You can use Typetalk service (TextDirect) by prefixing the telephone number you wish to call with:

• 18001 if you are text user
• 18002 if you are hearing user.

You will automatically be guided through the call by the Operator who will explain each step of the process to you.

For further information regarding TextDirect please visit www.typetalk.org or telephone Typetalk Customer Services 0800 7311 888 (for hearing customers) or 18001 0800 500 888 (for text phone users).

Visit our factsheet page for more information about adult services.