Allows people who are deaf, hard of hearing or have speech impairments to communicate through a communications assistant with people who use a standard telephone and vice versa. The communications assistant relays TTY (text telephone or telecommunications device for deaf and hard of hearing individuals) input to the telephone user and types that person's response back to the TTY user. Two options when using a telephone relay service are voice carry-over (VCO) and hearing carry-over (HCO). VCO allows a person with a hearing impairment to speak directly to the other party and then read the response typed by a communications assistant. HCO allows a person with a speech impairment to hear the other party and relay the TTY response back to the telephone user through the communications assistant. The service allows individuals with communication disorders to communicate with all telephone users. Telecommunication relay services can be reached by dialing 711.