Telephone Talk: Effects of Timing and Use of a Floorholder Message on Telephone Conversations Using Synthesized Speech

Telephone interaction remains a challenging form of communication for many who use speech-generating devices (SGDs). The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of delayed starts and floorholder information at the beginning of synthesized-speech telephone calls to local businesses. Calls were placed to 100 randomly selected businesses asking for business hours. Each call was randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions: a floorholder present with no delay, a floorholder present with a delay, floorholder absent and no delay, and floorholder absent with a delay. Overall, 76% of the calls were unsuccessful because the participant hung up or otherwise did not provide the information requested. The majority of successful calls occurred in the floorholder present and no delay condition.

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