Emergency app for people with hearing and speech disabilities: design, implementation and evaluation according to legal requirements in Germany

Abstract

We describe the design, implementation and evaluation of an App that allows people with hearing and speech impairments to make emergency calls to standard emergency call centers. The application was evaluated in two user studies involving people with hearing disabilities and emergency center staff receiving emergency calls from the emergency application. The development had been contracted by a german governmental committee in charge of regulating the emergency call infrastructure and is in the process of being introduced as the official emergency App in Germany.