An innovative new service that will allow deaf, hearing impaired and speech impaired people to contact 999 in an emergency via mobile phone text messaging is being launched by West Yorkshire Police.
The new system will give deaf, hearing impaired and speech impaired people the facility to report emergency situations, either as a victim or a witness, and get the relevant help from the police without having to rely on someone else to contact 999 for them.
A national 999 text messaging service for deaf, hearing impaired and speech impaired people is currently in the planning stages, but it is expected to be some years before it comes into service. Rather than wait for this, the Leeds Society for Deaf and Blind People, which provides social work services with deaf people on behalf of Leeds City Council Social Services, worked in partnership with West Yorkshire Police to set up the region’s own system. Hampshire Police was also consulted as one of the forces that already has an established SMS text service.
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