Federal Relay (FedRelay)
FedRelay provides telecommunications services for federal agencies and tribal governments to conduct official business with individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing, or have speech disabilities.
The general public who are deaf or hard of hearing, or have speech disabilities can also use this service to conduct business with federal agencies. Please follow the instructions for each service.
Sprint is the FedRelay service provider.
FedRelay features
Six services
FedRelay has six services — you only pay for the minutes and services you use.
A deaf or hard-of-hearing person uses a TTY or personal computer to type a conversation. A relay operator voices the typed conversion to a hearing person and then types the hearing person’s spoken response to the TTY user. Service is available seven days a week, 24 hours a day.
A person with a speech disability or voice synthesizer speaks directly to the called person. A specially trained relay operator acts as the speech-disabled user's voice by listening and repeating the speech-disabled user's dialogue if necessary. Service is available seven days a week, 24 hours a day.
CAPTIONED TELEPHONE SERVICE (CTS)
A deaf or hard-of-hearing person dials another party using a captioned telephone. The CTS phone automatically connects to a captioning relay service center where a specially trained relay operator transcribes the called party's responses into text (captions). Captions appear on a display on the CTS phone. Service is available seven days a week, 24 hours a day.
This is a web-based version of TTY/ASCII service. Service is available seven days a week, 24 hours a day.
Instructions for use of IP Relay
RELAY CONFERENCE CAPTIONING (RCC)
Deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals can participate in teleconference calls. Real-time text is streamed to the user’s Internet-connected computer. Service is available from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. local time with a reservation 24 hours in advance.
A deaf person signs to a video interpreter using a video camera. The video interpreter voices the conversation to a hearing person on a standard phone and then the video interpreter signs back to the deaf person on a computer or television screen. Service is available from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., Monday through Friday Eastern time.
Complies with federal security mandates
We have conducted a Certification and Accreditation (C&A) of Sprint's systems for the three IP-based services (Video Relay Service, Relay Conference Captioning, and IP Relay) in accordance with:
- Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) Publication 199 (PDF)
- National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) FISMA Publication 800-60 (PDF)
- GSA IT security policy
How to order
To order FedRelay services, Designated Agency Representatives (DARs) or agency contracting officers should place a task order directly with Sprint to set up an ordering and billing arrangement. See the FedRelay website for more information.
How federal agencies have used FedRelay
Making meetings accessible to federal employees and the public
Relay Conference Captioning (RCC) has gone from a little-known FedRelay service to the largest relay service used by the federal government. Agencies benefit from the flexibility of RCC's ability to caption telephone conference calls, large conferences, web conferences, or small meetings, all with just 12 hours' notice. RCC is not just limited to communicating within the federal government; many agencies use RCC to reach out to the public.
The shortcut to this page is www.gsa.gov/fedrelay.
Public Access to Information for Limited English Proficient Persons
Citizens are eligible to participate in this federally sponsored program. If you are limited in your English proficiency, please contact us at fas.car@gsa.gov for assistance.
