By Lauren McGrath

Phone calls can be difficult for people with hearing loss, even with hearing aids or cochlear implants, when visual aids like text are unavailable. Emergency phone calls to 911 are perhaps the most dangerous manifestation of this limitation.

As a person with typical hearing, I understand that text-to-911 services are few and far between for people with hearing loss or who otherwise struggle with verbal phone conversations. About once a month I learn in the news of a county in the U.S. offering text-to-911 to its citizens. It’s great progress, but I always wondered how residents elsewhere will manage in crisis. Why aren’t we mobilizing to make this lifesaving service available immediately to everyone?  

The ability to communicate with the authorities by text in an emergency is limited to less than 10 percent of the U.S., says Scott Carlton, the creative director at Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness in New York City. Carlton is one of the masterminds behind Deaf 911, an emergency mobile app that gives people who are deaf or hard of hearing a voice when they need it most. Carlton doesn’t have a hearing loss, but his grandmother, with whom he was close, was profoundly deaf.

I became acquainted with Carlton after attending a New York City Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA) meeting in February 2020, on the topic of “Emergency and Home Safety for People With Hearing Loss.” Presenters Andrew Perlman and Scott Lawson from NYC Emergency Management addressed both individual emergency preparedness and the ways that the city makes services available to individuals of all abilities during a crisis. 

When the presenters opened up the floor for questions, I inquired about the future of text-to-911 in New York. I referenced NYC chapter president Katherine Bouton’s November 2019 blog post, "Emergency 911 Is Still Inaccessible for Many New Yorkers. How Long Do We Have to Wait?" to help convey the urgency of making text-to-911 available to the most populous city in the U.S. Of course, like everyone else in the packed room, I could not have anticipated that just a few weeks later New York would become the epicenter of a global pandemic.

I was told that New York is preparing to launch the first iteration of a technology with this capability in summer 2020, as Bouton also explains in her article. But as of fall 2019, this service was slated to be fully completed in 2024 and that does not account for delays likely caused by COVID-19.

My question prompted another audience member, Evelyn Schafer, to inform the room about Deaf 911. Deaf 911 is an app designed to be compatible with both iOS and Android technology that will facilitate both text-to-speech and speech-to-text technology. Schafer explained that a person experiencing an emergency will be able to have a two-way conversation with an operator to get immediate help. She noted it was still in development.

Afterward I approached Schafer, a minister at St. Ann’s Church for the Deaf in New York, who is Deaf, uses American Sign Language (ASL), and wears hearing aids. Schafer, like Carlton, is one of the key individuals involved with Deaf 911, along with Delores Hart, Ph.D. Hart is an advocate and researcher in the field of Prelingual/Culturally Deafness who works with individuals using ASL. A prelingual Deaf individual is one whose deafness occurred before the full acquisition of language, typically before ages 3 to 5 years old. Members of the prelingually Deaf community utilize American Sign Language as their most proficient and preferred means of communication.

“Members of the Prelingual/Culturally Deaf community have expressed that they have had difficulties in accessing and communicating with EMS, police, and fire. My biggest fear is what this has cost in terms of loss of life and/or health and physical harm,” Hart says.

After the three came up with the idea, Carlton enlisted a few members of the digital and technical staff at Saatchi & Saatchi to develop the prototype. In addition to conversations with Schafer and Hart, Carlton and his team conducted interviews with many Deaf people who described their own personal issues with emergency services.

The result is a sleek and user-friendly app compatible with both iPhone and Android that is now in beta testing. If brought to fruition, Deaf 911 would be the fastest way for a person with hearing loss to contact the authorities. According to the app’s website, relay-operator calls can take 3 minutes or longer and teletypewriting takes more than 8 minutes, while Deaf 911 takes as little as 30 seconds.

To save time for users, Deaf 911 save their name, address, and telephone number so it can be quickly dispatched to an operator in an emergency. The app also includes predictive text to facilitate replies to the most common questions, e.g., “Are you hurt?” The app user can choose from responses like “I’m not hurt” or “Someone else is hurt.”

In our meeting, Schafer provided an example of a time when Deaf 911 was desperately needed. A Deaf-Blind man living in a residence for individuals with physical and mental disabilities sensed gas on his floor. He traveled downstairs to notify the doorman, who dismissed the concern. He returned to his apartment and used teletyping to alert the authorities and, fortunately, the police and fire departments arrived in time to turn off the gas in the building, saving dozens of lives. Had the man been able to use Deaf 911 in this situation, he would have been helped up to 80 percent faster. 

And today, as the country navigates the COVID-19 pandemic, efficient emergency communications are more necessary than ever before for people with hearing loss.

Schafer pointed out that the app can be just as crucial for people with typical hearing. Deaf 911 would save lives for victims who cannot speak aloud to request emergency services, like those in domestic violence or active shooter scenarios.

“At the core of Deaf 911 is the insight that everyone should be given access to emergency services. No matter who they are, no matter what their condition,” Carlton says.

The launch of Deaf 911 is planned for both Android and iPhone this fall in the U.S. To receive updates about the app’s availability and to learn more, see deaf911.org.