A revoicer provides communication assistance by carefully listening to the speech patterns uttered by an individual with a speech disability, using lipreading (speechreading) and attention to other cues if necessary for full understanding of the utterances, and then repeats the same words in a manner that is more clear and understandable to the listener.
[1] Professional Revoicers are also used by telephone companies, under the STS Relay System first established by Robert Segalman, Ph.D., who established the nonprofit organization, Speech Communication Assistance by Telephone Inc (SCT).
The STS Relay System is now available at no cost to persons with speech disabilities in many countries.
In the United States, the STS Relay System is monitored by the United States Federal Communications Commission,[2] and can be accessed by dialing 711 on any voice telephone and requesting STS Relay Service.
The use of revoicing in criminal trials has been compared to the now widely discredited use of other types of facilitated communication,[4] which is believed to have resulted in innocent people being accused of crimes.