What are the obligations of places of public accommodation to make their telephone services accessible for incoming telephone calls?
Places of public accommodation must make their telephone services accessible to individuals with hearing loss. In most cases, the relay services provided under title IV of the ADA will permit deaf individuals to call businesses and other places of public accommodation. Banks and educational institutions are just two types of public accommodations that have begun to use interactive (also called audiotext) telephone services. These services provide a recorded message that gives the caller a choice of options as to how to direct the call. Very often relay operators have a difficult time keeping up with the speed of these and other prerecorded telephone messages. Where these services offer the only means of telephone access to the place of public accommodation, TDD users should be given an alternate method of accessing the place of public accommodation by telephone. Alternative methods may include providing a separate, TDD-accessible telephone number or providing a live operator option wit
