What is VCO and HCO?
VCO is “voice carry over” and HCO is “hearing carry over”. These terms refer to strategies for using TTYs. VCO allows people who are hard of hearing or oral deaf (deaf with intelligible speech) to use a TTY without typing. They only use the TTY for reading during the inbound direction of the call. They talk to their party by speaking into a microphone. Similarly, HCO allows a person with a speech disability to hear a response from their party directly. These options are often used in conjunction with a relay service. What is a relay service? A telecommunications relay service (TRS) is essentially a telephone interpreting service for people with communication disabilities. It enables a TTY user to converse with a non-TTY user. Relay service operators are called Communication Assistants (CAs) and serve as third parties to facilitate conversations – by typing or speaking information as appropriate. Relay services are available without charge 24 hours per day. These and other TRS provision
