Overview
Logging In
To Record Messages - Dial 1
To Get Messages - Dial 2
To Administer Greetings - Dial 3
Tips For Effective Use of TTY messaging
Tips for Administrators
The voice messaging system lets you send, receive,
and record messages with a teletype (TTY). You can get
messages from other TTY users or from people with messaging
mailboxes. Your TTY messaging will allow you to respond
to messages, forward them to others, save them for later,
or delete them. This guide tells you the basics of your
TTY, and offers some tips to help you use your TTY with
messaging.
Overview
This page describes features and operations that
are available on most messaging systems, but not all.
If something on your system does not seem to work
properly, please contact your system administrator
for help.
Messaging prompts will appear on your TTY, telling you
what to do at each step. When messaging prompts you to
dial something, you should use a phone that has buttons
(a touchtone phone rather than a rotary phone). The
only time you should type on your TTY is when you
see the "GA" prompt.
Any time you need assistance with messaging, you can dial
*H or *4 to find out where you are in the system or
to see a list of available options.
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Logging In
Use one of the following methods to log into messaging.
Option One only works if you have the *R or *7 feature
on your company's messaging system; check with your system
administrator to find out. If you do not have *R or
*7, then use Option Two.
Option One: Logging in by dialing your personal
extension
- Dial your own phone number.
- When you see your greeting appear on the TTY (or
when the indicator light flickers), dial *R or *7
on the phone to access the messaging system.
- The messaging system displays the welcome prompt.
- On the phone, dial your own phone number, followed
by the pound sign (#).
- Dial your password, followed by the pound sign
(#).
- The messaging system displays your name, states whether
you have messages, then lists your options. This
means that you have finished logging in.
Option Two: Logging in by dialing messaging
- Dial the messaging system.
- Watch the signal light on your TTY. A flickering
light indicates that messaging has answered and its
spoken log-in prompt is playing. Wait about five
seconds while the messaging system answers.
- On your phone, dial your own phone number, followed
by the pound sign (#).
- Dial your password, followed by the pound sign
(#).
- The messaging system displays your name, states whether
you have messages, and lists your options. This
indicates that you have finished logging in.
NOTE:
If there is no response and no indication that you
have logged in, hang up and start over at step 1.
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To Record Messages - Dial 1
- After logging in, dial 1 to record messages.
- Wait for the "GA" prompt to be displayed
on your monitor. When you are finished typing your
message, dial the pound sign (#).
- Dial the extension of the person you want to receive
the message and then dial the pound sign (#). The
name of person being sent the message will be displayed.
If you want to send the message to another person,
dial that extension, followed by the pound sign
(#).
- When you are finished recording messages, dial
two pound signs (##) and you will be returned to
the main activity menu.
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To Get Messages - Dial 2
When you dial 2, your display indicates that you
have new messages, what kind of messages they are,
when they were sent, from whom, and the sender's extension.
You then have the following options:
- To see the message, dial zero.
- To respond to the message or to forward it, dial
1.
- To delete the message, dial *D or *3.
- To save the message in your mailbox, dial the
pound sign (#).
If you want to return to the main menu before you
have reviewed all of your messages, dial *R or *7.
Otherwise, messaging will return you to the main menu
automatically after the last message is reviewed.
Spoken Messages
You may receive spoken messages in your messaging mailbox.
When spoken messages are sent through your TTY, your
TTY will probably show nothing, or it may show occasional
random characters. Messaging is unable to translate voice
messages into text, so you will need to forward the
message to a hearing person who can translate it for
you.
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To Administer Greetings - Dial
3
To handle both TTY and non-TTY calls, you will have
two sets of greetings:
- A Primary Greeting. Your primary greeting is both
a spoken greeting followed by a TTY greeting. The
first few seconds of the primary greeting will be
a brief voice message, indicating that the caller
has reached a TTY mailbox. After that, you will
add a TTY message to the same greeting, immediately
after the voice recording.
- A Secondary Greeting. Your secondary greeting
is a spoken greeting only, for callers who are not
using a TTY system.
(Contact your administrator and ask to have "multilingual
greetings with TTY as the primary call answer language"
set up on your system.)
Primary Greeting
To record your primary greeting (a combination spoken
and TTY greeting), do the following:
- Log into your messaging system. (See previous sections
for instructions.)
- Dial 3 from the Activity Menu to select greetings
administration.
- Dial 1 to set up the primary (TTY) greeting.
- Dial 1 to record (or re-record) this greeting.
- When you see the "GA" prompt on your
TTY, remove your handset from the acoustic coupler
and record the spoken portion of your greeting.
Consider using the following greeting:
"This is a TTY mailbox. For voice, dial star
one now."
- Dial 1 to stop recording.
- Return the handset to the acoustic coupler.
- Dial 1 again on your phone, wait for the "GA"
prompt, and then type your TTY greeting.
Consider including the following information:
"John Smith is not available now. Please leave
a message after you see the GA prompt. When you
are done, you may hang up or dial one for more options."
- Dial the pound sign (#) to approve, and then the
pound sign (#) again to indicate that you are finished.
Secondary Greeting
To record your secondary (spoken only) greeting,
do the following:
- Log into your messaging system. (See previous sections for
instructions.)
- Dial 3 to administer greetings.
- Dial 2 to administer secondary greeting.
- Dial 1 to re-record your secondary spoken greeting.
- When you see the "GA" prompt on your
TTY, pick up your handset from the acoustic coupler
and record your spoken greeting.
Consider including the following information:
"John Smith is not available now. Please leave
a message after you see the GA prompt. When you
are done, you may hang up or dial one for more options."
- Dial 1 to stop recording.
- Return the handset to the acoustic coupler. Dial
1 again.
- Dial the pound sign (#) to approve, and then the
pound sign (#) again to indicate that you are finished.
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Tips For Effective Use of TTY
Messaging
Transmission Problems (These can only be corrected
by you if your phone is separate from your TTY system.)
- If you see a lot of typing errors in messages,
messages might be transmitted too softly.
Dial 4 to make the transmission louder.
- If messaging does not respond to touchtone phone button
dials while transmitting, the messages may be playing
too loudly. Wait until messaging stops transmitting,
then dial 7 to make the messaging transmission softer.
Dialing Through - Setting the Mode for Yourself
If you get a message that begins with numbers
when you are expecting a written message, your TTY
will display a meaningless string of letters. In this
case, manually shift your TTY to numbers mode.
Setting the Mode for Others
When listening to messages, receiving TTY users may
dial through messaging prompts and recorded messages.
As described above, dialing through may cause the
receiving TTY to display your message in the wrong
mode. Therefore, as a courtesy to the person receiving
your message, set the correct mode (letters or numbers)
before you begin typing your recording.
How to Set the Mode
To set the correct mode, dial the letters or numbers
reset key before typing your message. If your TTY
does not have letters/numbers reset keys, you can
still get your TTY to generate the appropriate reset
codes by doing the following:
- If your message starts with letters, type a slash
(/) or a number and press the space bar a few times
before you type your message. This technique causes
the receiving TTY to reset to letters mode.
- If your message starts with numbers, type X or
another letter and press the space bar a few times
before you type your message. This technique causes
the receiving TTY to reset to numbers mode.
The GA Prompt
The GA signal that follows a TTY message means "Go
Ahead." This means, in essence, "It's your
turn to transmit." Always wait for the GA signal
before typing a TTY message.
Speed up/slow down and skip ahead/back up options
Users in spoken languages have in messaging the options
to play messages faster or slower, skip ahead through
messages, or skip backward through messages. You do
not have these options when using a TTY because they
interfere with signaling between messaging and the TTY.
Any messages that come in will display at a constant
rate.
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Tips for Administrators
- Be sure to set up the messaging account with multilingual
greetings. Set the TTY greeting as the primary greeting
and the spoken as the secondary greeting. This will
eliminate the need for two separate phone numbers.
- Notify TTY users that they can use *R or *7 to
log in to their mailboxes (if this is available
on your system).
- Before distributing login announcements, notify
TTY users, or remove TTY users from login announcement
lists.
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