An electronic communication method and system are disclosed. Exemplary methods can be used by hearing or speech-impaired participants in a conference, e.g., collaboration, environment to facilitate communication between conference participants.

Systems, apparatuses, and methods for enabling communication between parties are disclosed. A system may include a first communication device associated with a first user and a second communication device associated with a second user. The system may include a first communication channel between the first user and the second user for transmitting call data between the first communication device and the second communication device. The system may include a second communication channel between the first user and the second user established concurrently with the first communication channel. The second communication channel may be separate from the first communication channel. The second communication channel may be established by connection of the communication session participants to a multipoint control unit that is configured to transmit media data between the first communication device and the second communication device. The system allows transmission of one or more types of call data to be switched between the first and second communication channels.

A captioning relay for captioning hearing user (HU) voice signals comprising a plurality of separate captioning resources and a captioning administrator module that receives HU voice signal segments corresponding to a plurality of separate ongoing calls between HUs and AUs and provides the voice signal segments in a first in, first out order to the captioning resources, the administrator module providing each voice signal segment from each call to any one of the captioning resources to be captioned without regard to which captioning resource captioned prior voice signal segments generated during the call and, the administrator module further receiving caption segments back from the captioning resources and providing those captioning segments to AU devices associated with the calls that generated corresponding HU voice signal segments, and wherein the number of captioning resources is less than the number of ongoing calls.

Systems and methods for synchronizing screen highlights and voice-over are disclosed. A system obtains a text container queued to be audibly read by a screen reader where the text container includes plain text and hyperlinks. The system determines each accessibility element in the text container, where each of the accessibility elements has one or more old accessibility frames associated with a screen highlight of a plain text or a hyperlink of the accessibility element, and where the screen highlight indicates what is being audibly read by the screen reader. For each of the accessibility elements, the system: determines one or more frames that captures the plain text or the hyperlink of the accessibility element to an exclusion of a plain text or a hyperlink corresponding to another accessibility element; converts the frames into a new accessibility frame; and replaces the old accessibility frame with the new accessibility frame.

A method may include obtaining a first audio signal including first speech originating at a remote device during a communication session between the remote device and a communication device and obtaining a second audio signal including second speech originating at the communication device during the communication session between the remote device and the communication device. The method may also include obtaining a characteristic of the communication session from one or more of: the first audio signal, the second audio signal, and settings of the communication device and determining a hearing level of a user of the communication device using the characteristic of the communication session.

A method may include obtaining an indicator that a first device is in a location of a second device and in response to obtaining the indicator, sending a redirect request to a communication service provider of the first device to direct, to the second device, incoming communication requests handled by the communication service provider that are directed to the first device. The method may further include after sending the redirect request and after a communication request to a communication session is directed to the first device, obtaining, at the second device, a communication indication to participate in the communication session. The method may further include directing audio of the communication session to a transcription system and obtaining, at the second device, the transcription of the audio from the transcription system. The method may also include presenting, by the second device, the audio and the transcription.

A system and method for use with an assisted user's communication device that includes a display. The method includes providing a user communication device including a processor that is programmed to perform the step of, upon disconnection of an emergency call to a hearing user in which a captioning service has provided text transcription of voice messages from the hearing user, maintaining a link to the captioning service for a predetermined period of time. The processor also is programmed to perform the step of recognizing the call as an emergency call upon placement of the call, and the captioning service is automatically initiated upon the processor performing that recognition.

A captioning relay for captioning hearing user (HU) voice signals comprising a plurality of separate captioning resources and a captioning administrator module that receives HU voice signal segments corresponding to a plurality of separate ongoing calls between HUs and AUs and provides the voice signal segments in a first in, first out order to the captioning resources, the administrator module providing each voice signal segment from each call to any one of the captioning resources to be captioned without regard to which captioning resource captioned prior voice signal segments generated during the call and, the administrator module further receiving caption segments back from the captioning resources and providing those captioning segments to AU devices associated with the calls that generated corresponding HU voice signal segments, and wherein the number of captioning resources is less than the number of ongoing calls.

A captioning relay for captioning hearing user (HU) voice signals comprising a plurality of separate captioning resources and a captioning administrator module that receives HU voice signal segments corresponding to a plurality of separate ongoing calls between HUs and AUs and provides the voice signal segments in a first in, first out order to the captioning resources, the administrator module providing each voice signal segment from each call to any one of the captioning resources to be captioned without regard to which captioning resource captioned prior voice signal segments generated during the call and, the administrator module further receiving caption segments back from the captioning resources and providing those captioning segments to AU devices associated with the calls that generated corresponding HU voice signal segments, and wherein the number of captioning resources is less than the number of ongoing calls.

A telecommunications network for playing an enhanced announcement in the same format as that of an enhanced call is described herein. An enhanced call is a call via real time text or video. The telecommunications network includes a node or subsystem, such as an IP multimedia subsystem core (IMS or IMS core), programmed to receive an enhanced call in a text or video format, detect the format of the enhanced call, and return an enhanced announcement—an announcement provided in the same format as the enhanced call. The IMS core can include one or more sub-nodes or sub-components, including a telephony application server (TAS), a media resource function (MRF), or both.