Conference calls with captions!

That’s right, it’s not a typo!
Virginia Relay has just announced availability of captions for conference calls, for Virginia residents. No more worrying about that caller who is always multi-tasking and talking into their speakerphone from two feet away. Virginia Relay’s new Remote Conference Captioning service provides the captioning free of charge to Virginia residents, who can view the internet-based captions on their laptop during the conference call.
I found out about it last week from Clayton Bowen, director of Virginia Relay, a program of the Virginia Department for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (VDDHH), who said that Montana is the only other state offering this particular service.

Virginia Relay provides communications access to people who are deaf, hard-of-hearing, and deaf-blind, through a number of traditional and high-tech programs.
If you live in Virginia, visit the Virginia Relay website, www.varelay.org. There’s more information on the conference-call captions here: http://www.varelay.org/downloads/latestnews/RCCflyer_V2.pdf.

Update: I just got an email to the effect that NJ’s captioning program also offers conference-call captions!  Nice video on their site.  And other states have also begun offering the service:
Njrelaycc.com <http://www.njrelaycc.com/&gt;
Hawaiircc.com <http://www.hawaiircc.com/&gt;
Ncrelaycc.com <http://www.ncrelaycc.com/&gt;

Arizonarcc.com <http://www.arizonarcc.com/&gt;
Floridarcc.com <http://www.floridarcc.com/&gt;
Coloradorcc.com <http://coloradorcc.com/&gt;

…as well as the federal government, to their employees:  Federalrcc.us <http://www.federalrcc.us/&gt;