We take for granted full and equal access to all telephone services enjoyed by people who hear and speak. And this access is a responsibility of the telephone companies, and NOT a charity as in the UK.

• We take for granted that we do not have to pay any more for telephone service than we would if we were hearing and talking.
• We take for granted that we can use our TTY for directory inquiries, to reach an operator to bill to another number, charge it to a calling card, or call collect.
• We take it for granted we can call the business office of the telephone company to start or stop service, question a bill, or register a complaint.
• We take it for granted we can call anyone who can hear via relay operators who are trained in ASL as seen in written communications, ethics, speedy typing, etc.
• We take it for granted that the relay service is not FOR DEAF PEOPLE but for everyone deaf and hearing, who have a need to communicate with each other.
• We take it for granted that we can open any telephone book and find information in the front section about relay services, reaching the operator, and reaching the telephone company's business office.
• We take it for granted that there are or soon will be (as the result of federal regulations) TTY-equipped payphones in all public buildings.
• When we call any relay service we do not have to be pre-registered and then accepted, we do not have to give our name and account number as in the UK. When using the relay we can also use it in either Baudot or ASCII. We do not have to tell the relay operator what kind of equipment we are using and wait while he or she manually sets up the call as in the UK.

• We also take it for granted we can have direct access to all programs and services that are fully or partially funded by the taxes we pay...they have TTYs.
• We take it for granted that many businesses and public services recognize TTY users as an important segment of their customer population and that many put TTYs into service before any law required them to.

(Contributed by Judy Tingley at 28 Nov 1993.)