President George H.W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) which included a clause about accessibility in communication for all, and that includes telecommunications. Telecommunications Relay Services (TRS) allow persons who are deaf, hard of hearing, deafblind, or have speech disabilities to communicate by phone in a manner that is functionally equivalent to telephone services used by people without disabilities. As part of a federal mandate, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) must ensure the provision of TRS and that’s why the TRS Fund was established.

The TRS fund was established to support programs for Americans with disabilities related to telecommunications. It’s funded by interstate telecommunications carriers and  Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers and is used to cover costs associated with captioning services. The fund and service are administered by the FCC to provide captions services at no cost to qualified individuals. 

As an industry leader, we give you peace of mind by providing you the service and support for all your phone captioning needs so that you can connect with those you care about. Our service is available at no cost to you thanks to this federally managed program.

To qualify, you must live in the U.S. or a U.S. territory and certify that you have a degree of hearing loss that requires captions to use the phone. During setup, you simply self-certify your hearing loss to verify that you are a qualified user of the service. It’s that easy! At this time, the ClearCaptions service is only available in English and requires internet connection.