Maine Revised Statutes Title 35-A. Public Utilities § 8702. Definitions

1. Council. “Council” means the Telecommunications Relay Services Council.

2. Blockage level. “Blockage level” means the proportion of placed calls that fail to reach a relay operator.

3. Deaf person. “Deaf person” means a person whose sense of hearing is nonfunctional for the purpose of ordinary communication.

3-A. Hard-of-hearing person.“Hard-of-hearing person” means a person who has a hearing loss in the range of mild to profound, who uses residual hearing and who prefers to speak and listen with the help of amplification, implantable devices, assistive technology and speechreading.

4. Repealed. Laws 2009, c. 68, § 7.

5. Speech impaired person. “Speech impaired person” means a person whose speech is nonfunctional or diminished for the purpose of ordinary communication.

5-A. Speechreading. “Speechreading” means a technique of understanding speech by visually interpreting the movements of the lips, face and tongue with information provided by the context, language and any residual hearing.

6. Telecommunications device for the deaf or TDD. “Telecommunications device for the deaf” or “TDD” means a teletypewriter, or TTY, or other telecommunication equipment used by deaf, hard-of-hearing or speech impaired persons to conduct telephone communications, including but not limited to devices required for captioned telephone service, equipment necessary to perform video relay service and 2-way paging devices.

7. Telecommunications relay service. “Telecommunications relay service” means a service transmitting messages and information between a person using a telecommunications device for the deaf and another person.