Translation of "Services des Malentendant " (French → English) :

A. whereas most EU emergency services remain accessible only using voice, excluding millions of citizens from a life-saving service, such as deaf, hard-of-hearing and speech-disabled users and in situations where discretion is needed in relation to the call,

34. Emphasises the need to guarantee the accessibility of the 112 number for people with different types of disability and vulnerable groups, and urges that accessibility be standardised for 112 for these groups in particular, possibly via the provision of special terminal devices for hearing- or visually-impaired users, text relay or sign language services, or other specific equipment; calls also on the Commission and the Member States to step up their efforts to heighten awareness among these people of the 112 number through the use of means of communication specially adapted to their needs;

This could involve the provision of special terminal devices for hearing-impaired users, text relay services, or other specific equipment.

Member States should take specific measures to ensure that emergency services, including ‘112’, are equally accessible to disabled end-users, in particular deaf, hearing-impaired, speech-impaired and deaf-blind users.

E.g. text relay services, essential for deaf and speech-impaired people, are only available in half of the Member States; emergency services are directly accessible by text telephone in only seven Member States; broadcasting with audio description, subtitled TV programming and TV sign-language programming remains very poor; only 8% of ATMs installed by the two main European retail banks provide 'talking' output[6].

Systems for motor impaired persons to facilitate mobility, manipulation and control have been demonstrated, as have services to improve communication possibilities of hearing impaired persons including sign language and lip movement generation.