Winnebago Cooperative Telecom Association participates in a number of Federal and State assistance programs. Details on each program may be found by clicking on the links below.
Relay Iowa is a specialized service that guarentees all citizens access to prompt, professional, and accurate communication through the telephone. Consumers of these specialized services, specifically individuals who are deaf, DeafBlind, hard of hearing or have difficulty speaking can communicate over the telephone via TTY, Voice Carry Over (VCO), Hearing Carry Over (HCO), Speech-to-Speech (STS), Spanish, and Captioned Telephone. This helps to ensure that they are able to connect with family, friends or businesses with ease.
Dial 711 to connect with Relay Iowa. A specially trained operator, called a Communication Assistant (CA) will ask for the area code and the number of the person you wish to call and will begin relaying the conversation. Generally, the CA will voice the typed message from the text telephone (TTY) user to the person on the other end. The CA then relays the spoken words by typing them back to the TTY user. All calls are held strictly confidential.
For a downloadable file with more information, click here.
Minnesota Relay is a free, federally mandated Telecommunications Relay Services (TRS) program that allows an individual who is deaf, hard of hearing, deaf-blind, or speech disabled to communicate over the telephone in a manner that is functionally equivalent to the ability of an individual who does not have hearing loss or a speech disability.
A specially trained communications assistant (CA) facilitates the telephone conversation between a person with a hearing or speech disability and other individuals. Calls can be made to anywhere in the world (standard charges apply for long-distance calls), 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. All calls are completely confidential.
Minnesota Relay is administered by the Telecommunications Access Minnesota (TAM) program within the Minnesota Department of Commerce, and is funded through a monthly surcharge on each wired and wireless telephone access line in the state. Minnesota Relay services are provided to the state under contract with Communication Service for the Deaf. The Minnesota Relay call center is located in Moorhead, MN.