Sorenson Communications

Deaf callers place free ASL video relay calls through Sorenson when businesses have no direct sign-language line.

ENABLE Model location

• Navigator-side Compensations → Use Assistive Technologies
• Navigator-side Compensations → Use Humans for Assistance
• Builder-side Interventions → Provide Support Channels
• Builder-side Interventions → Provision Resources for Accessibility

What it is

Sorenson Communications runs Sorenson VRS, a Video Relay Service that lets Deaf people sign to a communications assistant over video, have the assistant voice the call to hearing parties, and use the service at no cost. The FCC funds that access through the Interstate Telecommunications Relay Service Fund and, in June 2025, granted Sorenson full certification under Ariel GP Holdco through June 24, 2030 after a prior conditional certification period.¹² That makes Sorenson both an assistive technology provider and a staffed human help service for Deaf callers, and the support channel the FCC requires the telecommunications industry to fund in place of building ASL access into the phone network itself.

Sorenson also sells videophones, mobile, desktop, Zoom, and Wavello VRS products and says it handles more than 140 million interpreted and captioned calls a year.³ In January 2025, the FCC approved Sorenson for access to the TRS Numbering Directory as a qualified direct video entity, which extends the company toward direct ASL customer support for some call-center interactions instead of relay-only routing.⁴

Why it matters

The telephone network excluded Deaf users from the moment it took voice as the default. Harlan Lane showed that Bell and the hearing institutions around him treated oral speech as the norm and pushed sign language to the margins, while the later telephone network displaced text-based access without replacing it.⁵ Robert Weitbrecht's TTY work in 1964 gave Deaf people a text route into telephony, but it required both parties to own special hardware, so businesses and agencies rarely adopted it.⁶ Title IV of the Americans with Disabilities Act then made relay service a national obligation, and the FCC first provisioned the TRS Fund for interstate VRS reimbursement in 2002, which made Sorenson's 2003 entry possible.⁷⁸

The telecommunications industry turned that obligation into a reimbursement market that still depends on private gatekeepers. Every carrier pays into the TRS Fund surcharge instead of provisioning sign access into its own service, which converts an industry-wide duty into a single outsourced support channel run by a handful of private providers. The FCC's per-minute funding model pays those providers to supply access that the network never built natively, and Sorenson's market position means a large share of Deaf telephone access still runs through one firm's staffing, debt, and compliance decisions.¹²⁹ Ariel Alternatives acquired a 52 percent stake in Sorenson in 2022, and Moody's downgraded Sorenson's credit rating after the leveraged buyout doubled the company's consolidated debt.⁹ When Sorenson's service fails or interpreter quality frustrates a call, users cannot simply call back on a different route because most of the available capacity lives inside the same small market. Convo Communications, the only Deaf-owned and fully FCC-certified VRS provider, operates at a fraction of Sorenson's scale.¹⁰ Deaf users who need to complain can give feedback to the FCC or switch to an alternative provider, but the structure still makes access dependent on a company that receives public funds first and serves users second.

The reimbursement model also rewards volume, which gives Sorenson a reason to keep the system moving even when users experience privacy or quality problems. Sorenson and CaptionCall paid $40.5 million in 2021 to resolve FCC findings about improper incentives and fund billing, and they paid another $34.6 million in 2024 to resolve unlawful retention of call content and inaccurate fund claims.¹¹¹² The FCC raised VRS per-minute rates by 30 to 49 percent in October 2023 and projected that interpreter wages would rise 65 percent over five years, but Sorenson gave VRS interpreters a 4 percent raise in April 2024 while inflation ran between 3.4 and 7.7 percent across the relevant periods.⁹¹³ The FCC still granted Sorenson full certification in 2025 because removing it would eliminate most VRS capacity, so the regulator keeps funding the same infrastructure even after it catches violations. The public surcharge that finances VRS therefore absorbs the overcharges and the returns to Ariel Alternatives while Deaf users continue to rely on the same provider for basic access.

Carol Padden and Tom Humphries argue that Deaf people form a cultural and linguistic community whose language stands on its own rather than serving as a substitute for English.¹⁴ H-Dirksen Bauman and Joseph Murray extend that argument through "Deaf Gain," which treats Deaf communities as producers of cognitive, linguistic, and social contributions that the hearing world undervalues.¹⁵ The National Association of the Deaf describes VRS as the relay service closest to functional equivalence for ASL users because signed conversation flows faster and more naturally than typed relay.¹⁶ Sorenson's staff make the hearing network legible to ASL users, yet the hearing network still does not accept ASL directly. Every VRS call still converts ASL into English voice at the point of exit, so the hearing party still sets the terms of the conversation and the Deaf caller still accepts a third party inside every private exchange.

Deaf patients who rely on relay service still carry measurable health consequences when hospitals and clinics do not build their own communication pathways. A 2025 systematic review by Gemma Wilson-Menzfeld and colleagues found that Deaf and hard-of-hearing patients face misunderstandings, misdiagnoses, marginalization, and continuity-of-care problems when providers lack reliable communication systems.¹⁷ The National Deaf Center reports that only 54 percent of Deaf people are employed compared with 70 percent of hearing people, and the gap widens for deafblind and deafdisabled people.¹⁸ VRS reduces some of that burden, but the interpreter adds latency and a third-party presence to private or urgent calls, so Deaf callers still endure inaccessibility and give feedback when service quality slips. Deafdisabled callers, Deaf callers in rural areas with poor broadband, and Deaf callers who use less common sign varieties carry more of that residual load because interpreter availability and call-clarity conditions concentrate quality failures on them.

Sorenson still carries ASL telephone access at commercial scale. The company now holds full FCC certification through 2030 and has started moving toward qualified direct video customer support, which gives Deaf callers more direct options in some settings.²⁴ Sorenson occupies the support-channel position the telecommunications industry built to meet the ADA without changing its own networks, and advancing the frontier from here would require carriers to accept ASL natively on their own services rather than routing it through a third party at TRS Fund expense. Most Deaf telephone access still runs through staffed relay, and the FCC still lacks a public alternative that would let ASL move directly across the network without a human intermediary.

Real-world examples

In the news

FCC Announces $34.6 Million Consumer Privacy Investigation Settlement (July 2024)
-- Federal Communications Commission

• The FCC said CaptionCall and Sorenson unlawfully retained call content and submitted inaccurate TRS Fund information. The agency left Sorenson certified after the settlement, so Deaf callers kept relying on the same provider.

In the news

Sorenson Communications and CaptionCall Will Pay $40.5 Million for Violating the TRS Rules (December 2021)
-- Federal Communications Commission

• The FCC called the 2021 action the largest settlement for TRS violations at the time. Sorenson kept operating after the consent decree.

In the news

Wall Street Took Over a Vital Sign Language Service, And Started Union Busting (September 2024)
-- Sarah Lazare, In These Times

• Lazare reports that OPEIU organized VRS interpreters at Sorenson and ZP Better Together after private equity takeovers raised call volumes and held wages flat. Purple Communications closed its Minnesota offices within days of a January 2024 union vote, laying off roughly 50 interpreters. Deaf users who depend on staffed human help inherit the consequences of those labor decisions.

In the news

Private Equity Is Taking Your Calls (September 2024)
-- Luke Goldstein, The American Prospect

• Goldstein documents how Sorenson and ZP Better Together, both owned by Wall Street firms, absorbed the 2023 FCC rate increase without passing it through to interpreter wages. One interpreter told Goldstein that each day felt like "running into a burning building." The reporting names the gap between the FCC's rate justification and what reaches the workers who supply Deaf callers' human help.

• Sorenson says its VRS products include videophone, mobile, desktop, Zoom, and Wavello options, which gives some Deaf users more places to place calls than the old relay center model.³
• The FCC approved Sorenson for direct video access in January 2025, which nudges the company toward ASL customer support without an interpreter in some call-center settings.⁴
• Sorenson and CaptionCall entered two FCC consent decrees within five years, but the company still gained full certification in 2025 because the FCC treated its capacity as too important to remove.²¹¹¹²
• Convo Communications, founded in 2009 and the only Deaf-owned FCC-certified VRS provider, operates at a smaller scale and focuses on app-based access rather than hardware videophones.¹⁰

What care sounds like (builder-side interventions)

Care at the development stage involves telephone network builders and platform operators treating sign language as a primary communication channel rather than a relay conversion problem:

• "We're building direct ASL video calling into our customer service platform so Deaf users can sign to trained staff without needing a relay interpreter."
• "Our FCC compliance program ensures interpreter wages track the rate increases the TRS Fund is designed to fund."
• "We're negotiating interpreter contracts that include mandatory rest breaks and caps on consecutive call volume to reduce quality degradation."
• "We're implementing complaint tracking so Deaf users can report interpretation quality failures and receive follow-up from a Deaf customer service team."
• "Our healthcare communication system accepts VRS relay calls and has protocols so front desk staff know how to respond when the call begins with an interpreter introduction."
• "We retained call quality data only for the legally specified duration and then deleted it under our new compliance protocols."

What neglect sounds like (builder-side interventions)

Neglect involves telephone infrastructure builders and VRS operators treating Deaf access as a compliance minimum and the TRS Fund as a revenue source:

• "Our services are legally compliant. We are certified by the FCC."
• "Interpreter wages are an operational cost we manage competitively within the reimbursement rate."
• "Our call quality metrics meet the FCC's minimum standards."
• "We retained call content beyond the required period for technical reasons. We've since remediated."
• "The TRS Fund adequately compensates VRS providers. Rate adjustments reflect market conditions."
• "We do not have specific protocols for relay calls. Our front desk staff handles all calls."

What compensation sounds like (navigator-side compensations)

Compensation describes the labor Deaf callers perform when telephone infrastructure requires them to route all communications through an interpreter-mediated relay service:

• "Every call I make, someone else hears it. My doctor calls, my bank calls, my boss calls. There's always an interpreter on the line. Nothing is private."
• "I had to ask a hearing family member to help me call the insurance company because the VRS call dropped twice and the third time the interpreter had to put me on hold for two minutes to look something up."
• "I called 911 and had to wait while the interpreter confirmed my address and explained the relay system to the dispatcher. I don't know how long that took."
• "My employer asked why I couldn't just call the client directly like everyone else. I explained VRS. They said it was too complicated for clients to wait through the relay."
• "The call kept cutting out because my internet was slow. I had no way to tell the doctor to wait while I reconnected. By the time I got back on, they'd already moved on."
• "I put off calling the specialist for three weeks because the last relay call to that office took forty minutes. I just endure the delay and hope nothing gets worse."

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All observations occur within the context of United States interstate telecommunications regulation, where the FCC's TRS Fund finances Video Relay Service provision and Sorenson Communications operates the dominant provider under full FCC certification granted in June 2025.

Footnotes

1. FCC. "Video Relay Service (VRS)." https://www.fcc.gov/vrs ↩ ↩²

2. Federal Communications Commission. "Grant of Certification for Sorenson Communications, LLC, to Provide Video Relay Service Under Ownership of Ariel GP Holdco, LLC." June 24, 2025. https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-25-541A1.pdf ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

3. Sorenson. "Sorenson VRS." https://sorenson.com/services/relay/ ↩ ↩²

4. Federal Communications Commission. "Sorenson Approved to Access the TRS Numbering Directory as a Qualified Direct Video Entity." January 3, 2025. https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-25-8A1_Rcd.pdf ↩ ↩² ↩³

5. Lane, Harlan. When the Mind Hears: A History of the Deaf. New York: Random House, 1984. ↩

6. RIT InfoGuides. "Videophone Relay Services." HIST 330 Deafness and Technology. https://infoguides.rit.edu/deaftech/videophonerelay ↩

7. Federal Communications Commission. "FAQS on Telecommunications Relay Service (TRS)." https://transition.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Common_Carrier/FAQ/faq_trs.html ↩

8. Federal Communications Commission. "DA 03-131." https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-03-131A1.pdf ↩

9. Private Equity Stakeholder Project. "Lost in Interpretation: Private Equity's Capture of a Vital Sign Language Translation Tool." 2024. https://pestakeholder.org/reports/lost-in-interpretation-private-equitys-capture-of-a-vital-sign-language-translation-tool/ ↩ ↩² ↩³

10. Convo Communications. "What is Video Relay Service (VRS)?" Convo Help Center. https://support.convorelay.com/en/articles/952998-what-is-video-relay-service-vrs ↩ ↩²

11. Federal Communications Commission. "FCC Announces $34.6 Million Consumer Privacy Investigation Settlement." July 9, 2024. https://www.fcc.gov/consumer-governmental-affairs/fcc-announces-346-million-consumer-privacy-investigation-settlement ↩ ↩²

12. Federal Communications Commission. "Sorenson Communications and CaptionCall Will Pay $40.5 Million for Violating the TRS Rules." December 3, 2021. https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-378451A1.pdf ↩ ↩²

13. Goldstein, Luke. "Private Equity Is Taking Your Calls." The American Prospect, September 30, 2024. https://prospect.org/2024/09/30/2024-09-30-private-equity-is-taking-your-calls/ ↩

14. Padden, Carol, and Tom Humphries. Deaf in America: Voices from a Culture. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1988. ↩

15. Bauman, H-Dirksen L., and Joseph J. Murray. Deaf Gain: Raising the Stakes for Human Diversity. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2014. ↩

16. National Association of the Deaf. "Video Relay Services." https://www.nad.org/resources/technology/telephone-and-relay-services/video-relay-services/ ↩

17. Wilson-Menzfeld, Gemma, J. R. Gates, C. Jackson-Corbett, and G. Erfani. "Communication Experiences of Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing Patients During Healthcare Access and Consultation: A Systematic Narrative Review." Health & Social Care in the Community (2025). https://doi.org/10.1155/hsc/8867224 ↩

18. National Deaf Center. "Supporting Deaf People: Closing the Employment Gap." https://nationaldeafcenter.org/news-items/supporting-deaf-people-closing-the-employment-gap/ ↩