911 on internet relay

[operatorally]

Hi there, today I had to break protocol to make an emergency call for someone who wanted to dial 911 on internet relay and I thought I'd share a trick with everyone; if you want to dial for emergency on internet relay, we cannot do this because it doesnt connect us with your county's emergency services- your location is entirely unknown.
What you need to do is say, "dial 411 ask for police or hospital emergency line [whichever one you need] for [the county/city], then dial that number for me" Then we have permission to connect you.
Today I had a call from someone looking for 911, we're supposed to tell them to hang up and use a tty but all they had was a sidekick so i asked them where they lived and then called the police in the county and was able to help them get emergency assistance. Then of course, a manager disciplined me for this; frankly i was just glad to have helped the caller, but I thought you guys should know that you need to give those instructions in case you should run into a similar situation where you're away from a tty but need to call for emergency help.

 

[Kateweb]

cool beens I'm glad the person got the help that neaded. I hope you did not get in to much trouble for hellping them tho people ned operators like you.

 

[Brian]

That was nice of you helping the deaf where help is in need.

There is TTYCall.com that the deaf can use on their Sidekick/Hiptop at no charge. I have not personally tried TTYCall.

 

[farmerjoe]

Thats a good reminder that we cant call 911 via ip/IM relay, Its something you don't think about untill you need it and you try it.

You should find the non-911 emergency number before you need it and then you can skip the step of asking the operator for 411.

 

[Brian]

Well, in that case, use TTYCall.com and contact the Operator Services for the Deaf (OSD) for the local non-emergency numbers. OSD is a a free directory assistance for the hearing-impaired/deaf.

The toll-free number for OSD is: 1 (800) 855-1155 (TTY/TDD/TTD/TT).