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TTY phone: direct, equal emergency access for the deaf

Published: 13 October 2008 Publication History

Abstract

Seeking to enable direct and equal access for the Deaf to emergency call centers, we analyze the current state of the emergency phone system in the United States and elsewhere in the world. Leveraging teletypewriter (TTY) technology mandated by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 to be installed in all emergency call centers in the United States, we developed software that emulates a TTY on a smart phone. We present an Instant Messaging style interface for mobile phones that uses the existing emergency infrastructure and allows Deaf users to communicate directly with emergency operators.

References

[1]
Christopher Saunders, Bridging SMS and E911, (2003), http://www.instantmessagingplanet.com/wireless/article.php/3069641.
[2]
Compact / C -- Pocket sized TTY for use with digital cell phones. Available at website: http://www.ultratec.com/ttys/
[3]
FAQs and General TTY Etiquette Tips for New TTY Users (2005), retrieved from the Rochester Institute of Technology website http://wally.rit.edu/depts/ref/research/deaf/ttyuse.htm
[4]
Federal Communications Commission, Wireless 911 Services, FCC Consumer Facts (2006), retrieved from the FCC website: http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/wireless911srvc.html
[5]
Gallaudet University, Technology Access Program, TDI White Paper: Expectations of the deaf and hard-of-hearing communities for comprehensive federal action to accelerate emergency 911 access (2006), http://tap.gallaudet.edu/Emergency/
[6]
MyTTY: Software That Lets Your PC Work Like a TTY. Available at the ADCO hearing Products Inc website: http://www.adcohearing.com/ttys_access.html
[7]
PCTTY: A Windows TTY Computer Program for the Deaf, available at the website: http://www.pctty.com/
[8]
Sorenson VP--200 videophone: Available at Sorenson VRS website. http://www.sorensonvrs.com/ (since Aug. 2006)
[9]
Text messaging the emergency services, (2007) retrieved from the West Midlands Police website: https://www.west-midlands.police.uk/general/text-messaging.asp
[10]
U.S. Department of Justice-Civil Rights Division, Americans with Disabilities Act: Access for 9-1-1 and Telephone Emergency Services, 1990 http://www.ada.gov/911ta.htm
[11]
Worldwide smart mobile device market, Canalys Q4 2007, available at the Canalsys website: (Press release 5th Feb. 2008) http://www.canalsys.com/pr/2008/r2008021.htm

Cited By

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  • (2023)Challenges Faced by the Employed Indian DHH CommunityHuman-Computer Interaction – INTERACT 202310.1007/978-3-031-42280-5_13(201-223)Online publication date: 25-Aug-2023
  • (2021)A Persona-Based Approach for Identifying Accessibility Issues in Elderly and Disabled Users’ Interaction with Home AppliancesApplied Sciences10.3390/app1101036811:1(368)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2021
  • (2021)“Can I Not Be Suicidal on a Sunday?”: Understanding Technology-Mediated Pathways to Mental Health SupportProceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3411764.3445410(1-16)Online publication date: 6-May-2021
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Published In

cover image ACM Conferences
Assets '08: Proceedings of the 10th international ACM SIGACCESS conference on Computers and accessibility
October 2008
332 pages
ISBN:9781595939760
DOI:10.1145/1414471
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Publication History

Published: 13 October 2008

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Author Tags

  1. PSAP (public safety answering points)
  2. TTY (teletypewriter)
  3. assistive technology
  4. deaf
  5. emergency messaging

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Overall Acceptance Rate 436 of 1,556 submissions, 28%

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Cited By

View all
  • (2023)Challenges Faced by the Employed Indian DHH CommunityHuman-Computer Interaction – INTERACT 202310.1007/978-3-031-42280-5_13(201-223)Online publication date: 25-Aug-2023
  • (2021)A Persona-Based Approach for Identifying Accessibility Issues in Elderly and Disabled Users’ Interaction with Home AppliancesApplied Sciences10.3390/app1101036811:1(368)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2021
  • (2021)“Can I Not Be Suicidal on a Sunday?”: Understanding Technology-Mediated Pathways to Mental Health SupportProceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3411764.3445410(1-16)Online publication date: 6-May-2021
  • (2021)The coronavirus pandemic: Accessible technology for education, employment, and livelihoodsAssistive Technology10.1080/10400435.2021.1980836(1-8)Online publication date: 23-Nov-2021
  • (2019)Stimme: A Chat Application for Communicating with Hearing Impaired Persons2019 14th Conference on Industrial and Information Systems (ICIIS)10.1109/ICIIS47346.2019.9063252(458-463)Online publication date: Dec-2019
  • (2018)Inclusive Access to Emergency Services: A Complete System Focused on Hearing-Impaired CitizensInteractive Mobile Communication Technologies and Learning10.1007/978-3-319-75175-7_94(969-976)Online publication date: 14-Feb-2018
  • (2017)"Is Someone There? Do They Have a Gun"Proceedings of the 19th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility10.1145/3132525.3132534(260-269)Online publication date: 19-Oct-2017
  • (2017)Inclusive access to emergency servicesUniversal Access in the Information Society10.1007/s10209-016-0509-516:4(929-937)Online publication date: 1-Nov-2017
  • (2015)Technologies that Assist People Who Have DisabilitiesAssistive Technologies10.1016/B978-0-323-09631-7.00002-8(16-39)Online publication date: 2015
  • (2014)Emergency app for people with hearing and speech disabilitiesProceedings of the 8th International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare10.4108/icst.pervasivehealth.2014.255584(182-185)Online publication date: 20-May-2014
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