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Texting could help save lives

There’s a new way for Foothills residents with speech and hearing issues to get help in an emergency.
People with speech and hearing issues can now communicate with 911 via text in emergency situations.
People with speech and hearing issues can now communicate with 911 via text in emergency situations.

There’s a new way for Foothills residents with speech and hearing issues to get help in an emergency.

In mid-December, the Foothills Regional Emergency Services Commission (FRESC) launched its “Text to 911” system, which allows the deaf, hard of hearing or speech-impaired to contact 911 and correspond via text.

Megan Kee, clinical audiologist with The Hearing Loss Clinic in Okotoks and Calgary, said having the ability to text in an emergency situations will serve the deaf and hard of hearing community well, particularly those who are hard of hearing and struggle to understand or respond to speech.

People can have varying degrees of speech understanding on the phone depending on the type of hearing loss, processing abilities, the technology of specific hearing aids, and their first language, she said.

“People who have poor understanding on the phone, who have hearing loss and aren’t wearing hearing aids, or unaidable hearing loss, typically rely on text messages, emails or TTY telephone systems,” said Kee. “Having the Text to 911 would be a much quicker and easier way for them to contact emergency services.”

She said even those with hearing aids may struggle on the telephone in an emergency because telephones distort the signal and not all speech sounds or pitches come through the hearing aid. These people rely heavily on visual and contextual cues, she said.

“If you have someone who has, even in live situations, poor speech understanding and more significant hearing loss or problems processing auditory information, you’re losing valuable cues with the phone,” said Kee.

Misinterpretation could lead to issues describing emergency situations or responding properly to dispatcher questions, she said. It could also take longer to gather the necessary information to send out fire, police or ambulance services, said Kee.

“It could take more time to describe what the problem is, or they could respond incorrectly to a question,” said Kee. “The dispatcher isn’t getting accurate information because of that, which can be a huge problem, especially when you’re calling for an emergency that’s time-sensitive, which typically they are.

“So, having access to the Text 911 function is going to be huge for accurately and quickly being able to contact emergency services and tell what the issue is.”

The program was a nation-wide directive of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), which required all wireless and telephone companies to make changes to their networks to support the text-based 911 system.

“It’s increasing access to emergency services for people who are hard of hearing or deaf, who may have struggled to get help before,” said FRESC executive director Brenda Fenwick.

In the past, people with hearing issues would have relied on others to make emergency calls for them, she said.

“This offers them a level of independence and a level of confidence in an emergency situation,” said Fenwick.

Members of the Deaf, Hard of Hearing and Speech Impaired (DHHSI) community must contact their service providers directly to register for the service before Text to 911 will be available to them, she said.

Registered members can then dial 911 as usual, but Foothills 911 dispatchers will receive a notification that the caller requires text communication.

“We get a number of dead-air calls, but these calls will come in with a ‘TX’ next to the number, and we can respond with text messages to get all the information or give directions,” said Fenwick.

Verbal communication is still the best way to contact emergency services, she said, but for people who can’t hear or speak well text messaging is the next best thing.

“These people tend to communicate by text message a lot, so this is really an added service for the deaf and hard of hearing in our region,” said Fenwick.

Fenwick said at this time, the Text to 911 is not available to the general public. According to the CRTC, it could be something made available in the future.

In a written statement, Jean-Pierre Blais, chairman and CEO of the CRTC, said the organization encourages all members of the DHHSI community to register as soon as possible. He said Text to 911 is just one step in the future direction of emergency services.

“This innovative service is also a step towards next-generation 911 services, which we are currently examining,” he said.

According to the CRTC website, the next-generation services could include expanding 911 services to allow callers to send text messages, photos and videos to 911 operators.

A public hearing regarding next-generation 911 services is being held in Gatineau, Que. beginning Jan. 16 and running for an estimated five days. The hearing will discuss potential changes to 911 service, transition timelines and funding.

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