Phone Calls for Deaf & Hard of Hearing People

Last updated: July 31, 2026

Approximately 48 million Americans — nearly 15% of the population — experience some degree of hearing loss (Hearing Loss Association of America). For most of them, phone calls aren't just inconvenient — they're a genuine barrier to getting things done. Scheduling a doctor's appointment, disputing a bill, calling a government office — all of it assumes you can hear and speak on the phone. Here's what each of the available options actually does: relay, captioned calling, and your rights under the ADA.

The problem with phone calls

The world runs on phone calls. And if you're deaf or hard of hearing, that's a problem you deal with constantly.

Relay services exist, but they come with real friction. TTY relay is painfully slow — every sentence gets typed out by an operator, read aloud, then the response gets typed back to you. IP Relay and Video Relay Service (VRS) are faster, but still awkward. There's always a third person in the conversation, which means pauses, miscommunications, and a dynamic that feels nothing like a normal phone call. A relay call takes longer than a standard voice call, and some businesses still hang up when they hear a relay operator even though the ADA prohibits it.

Then there's the part nobody likes to talk about: some businesses just don't handle relay calls well. Even though the ADA requires them to accept relay calls, plenty of receptionists hang up when they hear an operator, or get impatient with the pace. It shouldn't happen, but it does.

Captioned phone services help people with partial hearing loss, but they're not perfect. Captions lag behind the conversation, miss words, and struggle with names, addresses, and numbers — exactly the details that matter most when you're scheduling something or getting instructions.

The result? Many people with hearing loss avoid phone calls entirely. They wait for email responses that never come, drive somewhere in person for something that should've taken two minutes, or just don't follow up at all. Medical appointments get postponed. Bills go unresolved. It adds up.

The calls that take the longest

Calling government agencies

Social Security, the IRS, the DMV. These calls are long, complicated, and exhausting even for hearing people. Most of that length is queue rather than conversation, which is worth knowing before you book a relay session: the operator is on the line for the hold too. Ask the relay provider whether they can stay through an extended wait, and call at opening time when queues are shortest.

Insurance and billing disputes

Insurance lines put a long automated menu and a longer queue in front of a short exchange about a claim number. Have the claim number, the date of service and the provider's name written down before you start, so the part of the call that involves a person stays as short as the information allows.

Scheduling doctor appointments

Most medical offices still require phone calls to book, reschedule, or cancel. Front desks usually answer faster than insurers or agencies, so these are reasonable calls to start with. Many practices also accept booking requests through a patient portal, which avoids the call entirely.

When relay is still the answer

If the hard part is the conversation itself rather than the wait, relay and captioned services remain the right tool, and businesses are required to accept them. Book the relay session for a time when the line you are calling is quietest, usually the first hour it is open, so less of the operator's time goes to the queue.