PROJECT: AIM Relay Services (AOL)

AIM Relay Services "allows users who are deaf, hard of hearing or speech disabled to connect to a telecommunications relay service and place relay telephone calls right from their Buddy List. Telecommunications relay services enable deaf and speech disabled users to communicate with others over a telephone. the disabled user inputs text using AIM; a Relay Communications Assistant then places the phone call and reads that text to the person on the receiving end, typing their responses back to the disabled user. This new service lets disabled users leverage instant messaging technology to do the same.


My Role:

  • Coordinated all meetings with carriers to discuss AIM Relay service concept
  • Acted as a facilitator between the various internal organizations to ensure product policy and processes were negotiated, documented, and executed accurately
  • Conducted workshops with carriers and internal teams to translate ideation into business requirements
  • Authored, in collaboration with IT,  all product requirement documents
  • Managed all product integration/launches/changes throughout implementation and release of product


Press Release:

AT&T Premieres Real Time IM Relay For Customers With Hearing And Speech Loss

Dallas, Texas, September 28, 2009

For people with hearing and speech loss, communicating with callers who can speak and hear just went real time, thanks to AT&T* and AOL’s AIM® instant messaging service. Customers using AT&T IM Relay services now have a new, faster feature at their fingertips: AT&T Real Time IM. AT&T is the first and only provider to offer the new real time feature — offering more than 31 million people with hearing and speech loss, nationwide, a more immediate way to communicate with standard telephone users.

Users log in to a specialized AIM interface that works with an Internet connection on a PC and on many wireless devices. A specially-trained relay operator reads IMs to hearing callers and types IMs which are displayed — in real time — to the end user. The new service is offered at no additional charge to customers who register with AT&T Relay Services.

With the new real time IM feature, instead of waiting for the relay operator to type a full phrase or sentence, IM users can see the text messages they are receiving, word-by-word as they are typed — making conversations feel more like calls experienced by hearing customers.

“To hearing users, this may sound like a trivial enhancement,” said Claude Stout, Executive Director, TDI. “But for many callers with hearing or speech disabilities, this creates a wireless and online communications experience that is much closer to what hearing people encounter when talking with others on the phone. TDI applauds such collaboration between industry players that results in greater functional equivalency for deaf and hard of hearing consumers.”

TDI recently honored AT&T with the 2009 James C. Marsters Promotion Award for providing innovative products and services that address the needs of people who are deaf or hard of hearing

To access the service, using an Internet connection and an AIM account, AT&T IM Relay users can IM the phone number they’re calling to the screen name “attrelay.” AT&T IM Relay customers are assigned a typical 10-digit phone number, like any other wireless or landline customer, that others can use to contact them.

“It’s great to see AT&T leading the way as the first IM Relay provider to offer real time services,” said Senior Vice President, Global Messaging, David Liu, AOL. “This generates added value for customers who rely on the service to keep them connected with friends, family, and business contacts. And, it means that conversations flow more naturally, and move more quickly for the parties on both sides of the conversation.”