No. Employers are required under the Americans with Disabilities Act to provide persons with hearing disabilities a reasonable accommodation, and such an accommodation may entail the use of a sign language interpreter. However, VRS cannot be used as a substitute for using an in-person interpreter or Video Remote Interpreting (VRI) in situations that would not, absent one of the parties’ hearing disability, entail the use of the telephone.

VRS, as a form of telecommunications relay service (TRS), is a means of giving persons with hearing disabilities access to the telephone system. VRS allows people with hearing disabilities whose primary language is ASL to use the Internet or another broadband connection to contact via video equipment a Communications Assistant who makes an outbound telephone call to a hearing person and relays the call between the two parties.

By contrast, sign language interpreters facilitate communication between individuals who use sign language to communicate and those who do not. An interpreter may be used in many situations when the parties are together at the same location. Generally, interpreters are contracted and paid for on a fee-for service basis. VRI is a service that is used when an interpreter cannot be physically present to interpret for two or more persons who are together at the same location. This service uses a video connection to provide access to an interpreter who is at a remote location. As with “in-person” interpreters, VRI services are generally contracted and paid for on a fee-for-service basis.

VRS is to be used only when a person with a hearing disability, who absent such disability would make a voice telephone call, desires to make a call through the telephone system (or when, in the reverse situation, the hearing person desires to make such a call to a person with a hearing disability). VRS may not be used as a substitute for an “in-person” interpreter or a VRI service.

Information about job accommodations is available on the Job Accommodation Network’s website at http://www.jan.wvu.edu or by calling JAN at 800-526-7234.