Avaya Inc. IP Telephony and Messaging Solutions, Accessibility Evaluation vs. Cisco Systems

Abstract

Avaya, Inc. commissioned The Tolly Group to evaluate the accessibility features of its IP Telephony and messaging systems and compare those capabilities to those offered by Cisco Systems, Inc.’s “AVVID” solution.

Tests spanned functions of interest to users with visual, hearing and/or speech impairments and covered technologies such as TTY integration with IP Telephony and messaging systems as well as telephony-oriented text-to-speech. The product suite from Avaya included its Avaya Communications Manager running in the Media Server S8700, Intuity(tm) AUDIX(tm) messaging system, 2420 Digital, 4620 IP and 4624 IP phones, analog interfaces to accommodate TTY devices and Avaya’s Universal Access Phone Status software. The Cisco system consisted of CallManager, Unity messaging system, 7960 IP phone, and analog interfaces for TTYs. For text-to-speech, the VTGO-PC Advanced softphone from IP blue Software Solutions was used.

Test results for TTY show that Avaya is able to leverage its long-standing support for “logical bridging” to provide a high degree of integration between its IP telephony (and digital telephony) environment – including messaging – and TTY. Conversely, Cisco’s lack of support for bridging deprives its TTY users of even basic functionality when used with its IP sets.