All I want for Christmas is a caption phone

Chance didn't actually ask for a caption phone to be installed New Year's Eve, but he also didn't even know those kinds of phones existed.  If he had been aware of them, he just may have asked Santa for a caption phone judging by his reaction when he realized we were getting one.

I made arrangements for the technician to come install the phone, and then in the excitement of the holidays, I forgot to tell Chance for a few days.

We were all sitting in the living room one night and I thought it might be a  good idea to share with Chance that a man was coming Monday morning to install his phone.

I explained what a caption phone was and Chance, who was perched on the arm of his dads chair sat silent for a moment just looking at me.

Then in a quiet voice he said," I really need one of those."

So it is, that now a caption phone is sitting on the desk in our kitchen just waiting to help Chance have better quality phone calls.

A good friend of ours who is deaf and uses implants had posted a link to the caption phone on her Facebook page and I had clicked on it just because I was curious.

The link said that we could get a caption phone for free if we qualified.  This kind of qualifying didn't have anything to do with how much money you make, but if you had a hearing loss.

Chance definitely qualified.

I was really skeptical about that free part though.  We all know what free means.  Nothing is free.  If someone is offering something for free, they are either trying to take your money by deceit or send a salesmen over to your house who will introduce you to the "free" service that ends up costing $1000.00 when all is said and done.

But I trusted enough to call because I trusted my friend.  If she had one, then she must have found these people to be legitimate.

The phones are provided by CaptionCall to all CaptionCall users for free to those who are eligible for captioning so they can access the service.

The captiontioning is funded through the telephone companies, usually passed on through a surcharge.  Funds go into the Interstate Telecommunications Relay Service(TRS) which pays for multiple relay services and is supervised by the Federal Communications Commission(The FCC).

The phone works because when you pick up the special phone, a person who types the captioning picks up too and types out what is being said.  You can turn off the captioning so if Chance picks up the phone, but then hands it to someone else, the captioning does not have to continue.

We have made it clear to the kids that this is CHANCE"S PHONE and none of them are to use it, even though it is tempting to play with it because it is so cool.  None of our other phones type out what your friends are saying.

This should give Chance a measure of freedom he has not had before.  He could always talk on the phone, but the quality of the conversation has been dictated by the phones being used and how the voice of the person he is talking to comes through.  Some people talk quietly, sometimes they are hard to understand because of accents or background noise or any number of things.

Chance is 12.  He needs the freedom to access phone calls on his own terms here at home.  He does not usually ask us for help.  Many times he just does not catch all that is being said.   Although, it does mean it won't be as entertaining for his dad and I since we won't end up having to be middle men as he asks girls out on dates years from now:)