911

9-1-1 is the universal emergency telephone number designed to give citizens an easy-to-remember phone number for POLICE, FIRE, or MEDICAL emergencies. By dialing just three numbers, 9-1-1, you can be connected to trained 911 telecommunicators who have experience and knowledge handling emergency calls and will route your call to the appropriate agency.

Like with the standard (voice) telephone users, Deaf, Deaf-Blind, and Hard of Hearing callers direct dial 911 to receive emergency assistance and services. Text Telephones (TTY/TDD) are becoming obsolete, and these TTY devices are being replaced with newer and advanced technologies such as Captioned Telephones, Videophones, and Captioned and Video mobile apps. More recently, deaf and hard-of-hearing cell phone users can send direct text messages to 911. The service is better known as the Text-to-911 service.

Deaf, deaf-blind, or hard of hearing may text 911 or call 911 using their preferred phone communication (including TTY, video relay, caption relay, or real-time text). The 911 telecommunicators prefer these types of calls because the technology is faster and more reliable, and they can listen to environmental sounds during a 911 call.

988 is the newest three-digit dialing code that will route callers to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (now known as the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline).  988 dialing is now active across the United States.  The deaf and hard of hearing callers can call, text, or chat 988; they will be connected to trained counselors that are part of the existing Lifeline network. These trained counselors will listen, understand how their problems affect them, provide support, and connect them to resources if necessary.