A system and method for use with an assisted user's communication device that includes a display and a speaker, the method comprising the steps of providing a processor programmed to perform the steps of, upon placement of an emergency call to a hearing user, recognizing the call as an emergency call, automatically initiating a captioning service to provide text transcription of voice messages from the hearing user and maintaining the captioning service for at least a time out period irrespective of actions by the assisted user and, upon placement of a non-emergency call, only starting the captioning service after a request for the captioning service from the assisted user is received.