For many years, the opportunities to provide our citizens with greater accessibility to the emergency services have not been maximised; but there are many inspiring examples of where such opportunities have been seized and have succeeded. In this session attendees saw exactly these success stories and were inspired by their impact.

1. Using apps designed for deaf and hard
of hearing people to reach emergency
services

2. Deaf people and 112 Services
 Europe has adopted an unique emergency number.
 Anyone can dial 112 to access emergency Services.
 Even small children can call 112 and save their
mother’s life.
But…
 50 million Europeans are deaf or hard of hearing
 Talking to 112 Emergency services operator or to any
other person requires hearing and talking

3. PROS
 Deaf or had of hearing
people access 112
Emergency Services
 Thanks to associations
and 112 numbers, users
can use templates to
provide detail
information
CONS
 Users need to have a fax
machine
 Difficult to keep bi-
directionality
 Useless when out of home
FAX

4. SMS
PROS
 Accessible from mobile
phones
 Allows user to maintain
a conversation with
emergency groups
using text
CONS
 Texting can be confusing
 May take time to explain
the situation
 May take time to explain
where you are

5. Apps
PROS
 Accurate location
 Allows user to maintain
a conversation with
emergency groups
using text
 Display Videos
CONS
 Smartphone needed
 Apps are new and
unknown for many people
 Maintenance of apps
platforms can be
expensive for 112 Centers

6.  Improved user location’s
accuracy
 Improve accessibility of
deaf and hard of hearing
people to 112 emergency
services
 New channel to send
emergency messages form
112 Centers to Citizens
Apps

7.  Applications allows hard of
hearing people to communicate
with 112 emergency services
without the need of using voice.
 Based in pictograms
 Allows users to send pictures
and videos
 Allows to send additional
information

8. Medical emergencies
 Poisoning
 Unable to breathe
 Burn
 Chest pain
 Delivery
 Choking
 Wound
 Seizures
Firefighters
Fire
Gas leakage
Flood
Car accident
Police
Domestic violence
Violation
Fight
missing person
Stole
Suicide

9. Allows the association of videos designed
to help understand the meaning of that
pictogram.
Accident Heart Attact gas leakage
Fire Flood Kidnapping

10.  Applications can use the
smartphone’s GPS to inform of
user’s location
 This information can be very
useful for emergency groups to
find the user in a fast and
accurate way.

11. Only users who belong to a hard of
hearing or deaf association can use
this app
To help 112 services to provide a better
services
 Personal information
 Medical Information
 Emergency contacts

12. Catalonia 112 Emergencies
Number
Thanks to the this APP, CAT112 has achieved several improvements
in the process of care and management of emergency calls in
Catalonia:
• Precise location of users that improves efficacy and quality
service.
• Better user interface, which reduces time and effort to
communicate with users.
• Ability to send images to the PSAP which helps calltakers to
understand de magnitude of the incident.

13. • Challenges found
• Usability and efficiency don’t go together (often)
• Not everyone can (want) use apps
• Lessons Learnt
• Developing Apps is easy, maintaining them is
expensive
• This idea can be applied to other kind of users

14. Pablo Gutiérrez Astilleros
Emergency Services Product Manager
pablo.gutierrezastilleros@telefonica.com
https://es.linkedin.com/in/pablogutierrezastilleros
pabloguti3rr3z