TTY PASS-CT (Call-Taker Evaluation)
TTY PASS-CT makes a native 911 call to your PSAP using the CAMA trunk line, provided by your TelCo. This gives us the ability to test unannounced, 24/7/365.
The call may arrive as a silent, open-line call, where the call-taker receives no verbal or tonal indication on the line. It may also arrive with TTY tones being sent. In either case, the call-taker should switch over to TTY communications and query with a message such as "911 WHAT IS THE ADDRESS OF YOUR EMERGENCY Q GA", (as prescribed in the NENA Operating Manual) which demonstrates the proper protocol for TTY communications. After detecting an acceptable response, TTY PASS-CT sends a brief TTY response with simple instructions for the call-taker, requesting a second response. After the second response from the call-taker is received, the call is terminated. The TTY dialogue is saved and sent to the email(s) provided, which is generally the PSAP supervisor. The results are sent ONLY to the email provided as proof that an evaluation occurred for that call-taker. The supervisor should retain call reports.
Experience with past clients has proven that TTY PASS-CT improves a call-taker's ability to respond with TTY users. Our experience shows that initial TTY PASS-CT silent calls are all too often terminated by call-takers, rather than being challenged. Continued use of the program demonstrates a dramatic reduction of that problem. TTY PASS-CT has also proven to reinforce and improve the use of standard TTY communications protocol.
TTY PASS-E (Equipment Evaluation)
TTY PASS-E supports the effectiveness of TTY PASS-CT by providing a documented evaluation for determining the accuracy of your TTY equipment and identifies when calibration is needed. To use TTY PASS-E, a call-taker places a telephone call from the equipment to be tested, to a 10-digit number, which invokes a Baudot response message. The call lasts for about 3 minutes while TTY PASS-E transmits data. The Baudot data transmitted varies in frequency and volume, in accordance with industry standard, TIA/EIA/IS-840-A-Minimum Performance Standards for TTY. This, in effect, evaluates the limits of the equipment. The data received at the position is compared to the data transmitted, in order to calculate the TCER (Total Character Error Rate). According to industry standards, the TCER should be 1% or less. A measured TCER greater than 1% Indicates that calibration is required in order to ensure accurate communications with TTY users.