Call someone who is d/Deaf, hard of hearing or has a speech communication difficulty

The NRS is an Australian Government initiative that provides a number of options for contacting a person by phone who is d/Deaf, hard of hearing and/or has a speech communication difficulty.

While you speak and listen over the phone a Relay Officer from the NRS will ‘relay’ your side of the conversation to the person you are calling in a way that suits them.

If the person you want to call uses the NRS and you know which of the nine NRS options they use, go to the NRS call numbers and links page.

More about the NRS

Need help contacting someone through the NRS?

Contact the NRS Helpdesk

If the person you want to call likes to communicate by text there are a number of options, including:

• Email
• SMS messaging
• Messaging apps
• Social media.

If you prefer to speak and listen over the phone, the following NRS options will relay your spoken words to the other person in text and have their text conversation relayed back to you in spoken words:

NRS Chat

SMS Relay

Video calls are good if the person you’re calling lip reads or uses Auslan. If they lip read, you can use any video call app.

If the person is an Auslan user, you’ll need a video call that includes an Auslan interpreter.

The National Relay Service (NRS) offers Video Relay

There are also a number of other video interpreter services available. However, unlike the NRS, some of these services may charge a fee.

If the person you want to call is hard of hearing and speaks their side of the conversation, they might prefer the support of reading your words in captions. There are a number of captioned services that offer this support.   

NRS Captions — your speech is converted to captions by a Relay Officer. 

Captioning apps — There are a number of apps that the person you’re calling may use to access captions with your call.