How do I make 511 accessible to the hearing-impaired and to non-English speakers?
511 can be accessible to the hearing-impaired either through a parallel Telecommunications Device for the Deaf (TDD) teletypewriter (TTY) service or, in some states, by using the 711 relay services that have been established to enable the hearing-impaired to call any phone number, regardless of whether it is TDD-TTY-equipped. 511 deployers should also publish the backdoor service number to ensure access by the hearing impaired community (and others as well). For callers who may be unable to speak English but can understand it, a touch-tone system that is parallel to the voice recognition system can often suffice. In order to serve those who neither speak nor understand English, separate menus and messages in additional languages can be utilized.
