“You have 1 Voicemail”

Seeing the voicemail icon on my phone makes my shoulders tense up. That’s because I can’t always understand the voicemail messages due to a number of factors, one being the obvious if you know me: I am deaf.  I can use the phone, thanks to my cochlear implants, but I really depend more on seeing visual cues. The other factors to not understanding voicemail messages include the clarity of the caller’s voice, background noise, and/or my listening focus. There was one particular voicemail that I couldn’t understand, and it was nagging at me for a couple of days, and this is all that I could make out from it:

“Hi, this is [???] from {????] and I got your [?!?!?!] and I have a couple of questions for you. Could you please call me back at 555-9873.”

Non-Clear Voicemails = Anxiety

So many unknowns! That’s why I’m going nuts over this! Was it a potential client? Was it a reporter? Was it a museum? I was at wit’s end.  Yes, it could’ve just been a telemarketer, but I didn’t want to take my chances…As an entrepreneur I work from libraries / coffeeshops / museum cafes, so it’s not like I can just walk up a random person at a table next to me with my phone and say, “Hey, can you listen to this voicemail for me? I can’t understand it because I am deaf.” (Well, I’m not that bold)

I sent out a tweet about it, to see if anyone knew of a solution for transcribing voicemails. No response. But one very nice person sent me a direct message and said, “If you forward me the VM, I can transcribe it for you.” How nice! But I knew that this wasn’t the first or last time I would have this communication block, nor was I alone, and needed to figure out a solution for once and for all.

Clear Captions App & Service

I’ve been using the Clear Captions web and iPhone app for a few months with positive results. This allows for me to have a more accessible phone call (for free), in which the caller’s voice is transcribed (“captioned”) nearly in real-time.  I’d walk you through how it works, but I’m afraid I would make it sound more complicated than it really is. So there’s a great video clip that provides a clear overview. Watch the first 0:30 seconds of the clip and you’ll have a clear understanding:

I often use Clear Captions when I am calling someone whose voice I am unfamiliar with, such as customer service representatives (i.e., cable / internet provider, airlines). Or if I am calling someone that is business-related, and I want to take steps within my control to eliminate potential areas for misunderstanding.  It really is a hassle-free, no-risk service that maintains my independence and allows me to communicate. The cool part is, this service works from my desktop / laptop, iPhone, iPad, and soon Android.

Anyway. Back to voicemail. You can use Clear Captions (or any other mobile captioning service, I would imagine) to get someone to remotely transcribe your voicemail. You just call yourself, which then goes straight to your voice mailbox. The captioner then types out the voice mailbox menu and message!

Solution: Transcribed Voicemail!

Granted, it took me a few tries. That’s kind of how we all need to try out technology and find out what works for us — through trial and error:

  • To access my voicemail, I had to call my cell phone number through Clear Captions, and the voicemail menu came up, asking for me to key in my password.
  • Once I did this, the first message that was transcribed was a very old one — over a year old, as it starts with the oldest ones first.
  • So I deleted all of the messages in my voice mailbox. I’m not sure how it is for the other phone services, but for most iPhone users, we have something called a “visual voicemail.” Don’t let that trick you, because it’s not actually your voice “mailbox,” so you’d need to actually delete the messages in your iPhone’s visual voicemail for it to come up in the voice mailbox that can be accessed from a different phone using your passcode.  Weird, I know. But if I am mistaken, please let me know what I need to do to access my visual voicemail remotely!
  • Once I emptied out the voice mailbox, I went to my visual voicemail to this particular driving-me-crazy, confusing voicemail and pressed “delete” with hopes that it indeed, would go into my voice mailbox.

Solution, Take Two:

I pulled up Clear Captions again, dialed my number. Entered the passcode prompt as instructed via the captions, and then what sounded like the cryptic voice came up, and the captions said:

“Hi, this is Jeremy from BB&T Bank, and I got your fax. I have a couple of questions, so please call me back at 555-9873.”

Well! After all that trouble, I concluded that “Jeremy” simply dialed the wrong number because a.) I have not touched a fax machine in 4 years, and b.) I’m not a BB&T Bank Customer. I just sat there and had a good laugh. But hey, next time I get this type of voicemail, I’ll know what to do!

Share