Video Phone

Here's the question you've all been asking (right?): How do you call a deaf person? Here are the options.

1. Don't call, just email or text.
2. Call using VRS (Video Relay Service). When you call their number, it connects you to an interpreter. The interpreter calls the person's VP (Video Phone) and facilitates the conversation. It's a little clunky sometimes, because the interpreters aren't usually familiar with church vocabulary, alas.
3. Call using a VP. VP was invented back before the internet, and only deaf people could get one because the system was tax subsidized and they didn't want waste and abuse. Now-a-days, we can all video chat, but the system has been a little slow to adapt. One VP company made an app for android and apple that can call a VP directly. Otherwise, you sorta have to be deaf to call another deaf person's VP.

A lot of people in the branch are traditional VP users. (Don't you roll your eyes, we still have a landline and don't think we're stuck in the past. They're useful!) But we have an OS problem - we run Linux at home, have Chromebooks and Kindles, and the VP app doesn't work for us. Well, not true, our Linux computer has a dual boot, and we can switch to Windows to make phone calls. It usually takes 5 minutes to switch, so we have to plan ahead :) Or, Marriner can drive to the church and use the VP there. 

All of this is just to give you the background to appreciate our story from a few weeks ago. The other funny thing about VP is that the other person can see you. Marriner came upstairs from making a phone call the other night and grumbled, "You know, I know one way Mike (our brother-in-law who was called as a bishop the same time as Marriner became a branch president) has it better than I do - he doesn't have to put on a white shirt every time he makes a phone call!"