Pagers are small, portable, wireless devices that can receive and display messages
of various types. Until 1996 only
one-way pagers were available; new technologies enable some pagers to both send
and receive messages.
Depending on the paging system that the person subscribes to, the caller is able to contact a person by pager either locally, regionally, nationally or internationally.
The person leaving the message typically calls the paging system on a voice telephone and is prompted by voice to enter the recipient’s personal identification number (PIN). Some paging systems offer each subscriber a separate (usually toll-free) number so no PIN is needed. The system may only record the calling number, or accept a touch-tone numeric message, or record a short voice message for transcription or transmission.
Some paging service providers offer TTY interfaces so TTY users can call and send a paging message.
Most paging systems now have email and Internet access, so paging messages can be sent from computers.
There are 5 types of pagers, presented here roughly in the order they appeared:
These pagers only alert the user. The recipient must call the paging system’s service number to retrieve the message.
(1) Calling number
The pager alerts the user and displays the telephone number of the person who called into the system. The user then usually calls the telephone number displayed.
(2) Numeric message
The caller can leave any numeric message meaningful to the recipient, according to a pre-arranged code.
The pager alerts the user and displays the short text message left by the caller.
A user who is deaf:
“I can use it for work and call them back through relay, or get messages from home that I don’t need to call back at all. It’s better than before.”
The pager alerts the user and can deliver a short voice message. Unfortunately, the largest service provider of this service ceased operations in September 1999.
The pager alerts the user, the pager displays a text message, the user can reply to the message from the pager’s keypad. The keypad may permit selection from among a few pre-stored replies, or it may be a full-function keyboard for free text creation.
Two-way text dialogues can occur in near real-time, with only short delays between transmission and reception. This makes them essentially wireless data terminals. A few providers market this service especially to customers who are deaf. These offerings include complete landline TTY interfaces, so users can message with other two-way wireless text users or with wireline TTY users and TRS.
A user who is deaf:
“Ever since I got my [product name] I can go anywhere and [be] sure
I’m not missing anything. I’m
available all the time, and by TTY too.”
Two-way text messaging is also available as an additional feature on many digital wireless telephones and must be supported by the service provider.
Alert-only and voice pagers are accessible to blind users; most of the others require sufficient vision to read the small LCDs typically found on these devices. A growing number of pagers have either larger fonts or adjustable font size.
There are a number of access features that have been incorporated into some pagers: