Hamilton CapTel

The CapTel Captioning Service is offered by Ultratec Inc. (see separate entry) to provide realtime captioning of telephone conversations. Users of the CapTel Captioning Service must have a CapTel telephone (see separate entry), which is designed specifically to interact with the Captioning Service. CapTel Captioning Service subscribers place each call in the same way as dialing a traditional phone. As the user dials an outgoing call, the CapTel phone automatically connects to the Captioning Service. When the other party answers, the CapTel phone user hears everything that they say, just like a traditional call. Behind the scenes, an operator at the CapTel Captioning Service transcribes everything the other party says into written text. The written text appears on the display window built into the CapTel phone. The captions appear almost simultaneously with the spoken word, allowing the CapTel phone users to understand everything that is said either by hearing it or by reading it. Incoming calls must go through the Captioning Service to engage realtime captioning. The CapTel phone is available in a 2-line version that will automatically contact the CapTel Captioning Service for each incoming and outgoing call. The CapTel Captioning Service is available in 44 States and the District of Columbia. It is not available in Alaska, Delaware, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, and South Dakota. One free CapTel telephone is available to each active Federal employee who uses the Federal CapTel program.