New 911 service for the hearing and speech impaired
Posted March 18, 2014 12:56 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Canada’s first 911 service for the deaf is now serving Metro Vancouver and other parts of southwestern BC.
E-Comm says T911 service for the deaf, hard-of-hearing and speech-impaired community launched today.
Those who are registered can use their cell phone to text police, fire or ambulance across a wide region of Metro Vancouver, north to Pemberton and the Sunshine Coast.
E-Comm says calls from pre-registered cell phones will trigger an alert at the call centre, enabling a special messaging system so the 911 operator can communicate by text with the deaf or speech impaired caller.
The text service is available to the deaf in Metro Vancouver and several other areas in southwestern BC, but E-Comm officials say similar T911 capability is planned for other centres across Canada.
At some point in the future, T911 will be followed by text service for all cell phone users, but E-Comm officials remind the general public that voice calling remains the only way to contact 911 for those who are not hearing or speech impaired.
