Home Telephone

Special Needs Services

If you have a hearing, speech, visual or motion disability that makes it difficult for you to use telephone equipment, we can help. You can talk to an Bell Aliant Customer Service Representative, using your phone or TTY/TDD equipment, Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. - 8 p.m., and 8 a.m.- 6 p.m. on Saturdays.

  • Bell Aliant Special Needs 1-800-563-8700
  • TTY/TDD users call 1-800-855-1155

TTY/TDD Operator Assistance

All Callers 1-800-855-1155

TTY/TDD users calling long distance to other TTY/TDD users, please use your space bar to signal the operator for:

  • collect calls
  • bill to a third number
  • Bell Aliant Calling Card calls
  • person-to-person calls

Note: You can save money by dialing your own long distance calls. Surcharges are applied to operator-assisted calls.

Relay Service (RS) for TTY/TDD and Voice Users

Bell Aliant Relay Service enables text telephone (TTY) users to place or receive calls from non-TTY users with the assistance of a Bell Aliant Relay Service communicator. The Relay Service communicator acts as a translator by speaking and hearing with one party and reading and typing over a TTY device with the other party.

  • TTY's must be Baudot code capable, Voice Carry Over (VCO) is available
  • Service is available 7-days a week, 24-hours a day
  • French or English
  • Relay service can be reached from business, residence, cellular and pay phones
  • TTY users can call anywhere in the world. (Long-distance charges will be applied where appropriate.)
  • Hearing persons may call any compatible TTY device. (North America)
  • Users can access similar Relay Services everywhere in North America
  • All communicators have deaf culture training.

If you want to communicate with a TTY/TDD user you can with the help of Bell Aliant Relay Operators.

Dial 1-800-855-0511 to use this service. Your calls are answered 24 hours a day.
If you should experience problems with Relay Service, please call 1-800-565-1374.

Long Distance Discounts

Hearing or speech-impaired residence customers who use keyboard devices can apply for the following discounts by calling Bell Aliant Special Needs:

  • A 90% discount on long distance calls to other registered TTY/TDD users within Newfoundland and Labrador AND
  • A 90% discount on customer-dialed (DDD) long distance TTY/TDD calls to the rest of Canada.

This option only applies to long-distance calls placed from the customer's residence or business line. To qualify, customers must provide a letter of recommendation from a physician or representative advocacy group.

Customers with disabilities who are unable to place a direct-dialed long-distance call are eligible for direct-dialed rates on operator assisted calls. Simply notify the operator at the time you place the call. Dial "0".

Directory Assistance Exemptions

Customers with disabilities may be eligible for Bell Aliant's no-charge directory assistance option. This option allows 100 directory assistance calls per month free of charge. This option only applies to directory assistance calls placed from the customer's residence or business line. To qualify, customers must provide a letter of recommendation from a physician or representative advocacy group.

To apply for this exemption, please contact our special needs representative at 1-800-563-8700 .

Specialized Equipment for Customers with Disabilities

There are a number of dealer locations which can provide you with special telephones and accessories to assist those customers with disabilities. Contact our Special Needs representative at 1-800-563-8700 to discuss any particular situation.

Bell Aliant TV

If you have a vision impairment, Bell Aliant TV offers Described Video as an extra audio stream to provide you with information about the background scenes and activity taking place in the program you are watching. Note that Described Video is available when provided by the programmer, so some programs will not be available with this service. To access and enable Described Video press the “B” button on the remote control.

Bell Aliant TV also offers TACtv (The Accessible Channel). TACtv broadcasts popular TV programs from conventional and specialty TV services and foreign-rights holders in open format for people who are blind, vision-impaired, deaf or hard of hearing- a world first!

For those customers with a hearing impairment, closed captioning is provided when available. Also note that Bell Aliant TV remotes have a raised “5” button to help orientate the user.

Finally, there is no charge for service calls to customers with special needs and billing is available in alternate formats upon request (e.g. large print and Braille).

Billing

Bell Aliant makes bills available in alternate formats (e.g. Large print and Braille) upon request.

 

© 2009 Bell Aliant