Washington State 9-1-1 & TTY Program

Washington State 9-1-1/TTY Program

The Washington State 9-1-1/TTY Education Program was established in March 1995 following a tragic and unwarranted death of a Deaf resident in Eastern Washington in the summer of 1993. The family of the deceased had made many attempts to reach 9-1-1 via TTY without success. The Office of Deaf and Hard of Hearing (ODHH) under the directorship of G. Leon Curtis, in the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services, secured the funding to develop a training program for 9-1-1 Telecommunicators and TTY users.

The Community Service Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (CSCDHH) was awarded the first contract to develop a comprehensive training and educational program for 9-1-1/TTY accessibility. Additionally, in July 2001 the program received funding from the Washington State E9-1-1 to continue the training. In 2005 the program and its staff came to HSDC. In order to providing training and educational workshops in the state, the Washington State 9-1-1/TTY Education Program employs sub-contractors who represent different regions.

The Washington State 9-1-1/TTY Education Program [a program of HSDC - a 501(c)3 non-profit agency] is a statewide program that provides the following services:

Training to 9-1-1 telecommunicators on how to respond to and communicate with TTY users whose primary language is American Sign Language
Training to 9-1-1 telecommunicators on how to communicate with different groups such as Deaf, Deaf-Blind, Hard of Hearing, and Speech Disabled people via TTY and phone
Training to service providers working with Deaf, Deaf-Blind, Hard of Hearing, and Speech Disabled clients
Workshops to Deaf, Deaf-Blind, Hard of Hearing and Speech disabled students on how to communicate with 9-1-1
ADA 9-1-1 test call training to volunteers in various counties
Emergency Notification workshops to Deaf, Deaf-Blind and Hard of Hearing people on where to find emergency warning information

Workshops to Emergency Management staff

The project, Emergency Notification began in late 2001. The purpose of this project is to provide:

Resources to the Deaf, Deaf-Blind and Hard of Hearing communities on their rights to emergency information and where/how to have access to emergency information
Resources to Emergency Management people in order to gain better understanding of Deaf, Deaf-Blind and Hard of Hearing Culture and how they can outreach to them

The Washington State 9-1-1/TTY Education Program welcomes any new information, questions, feedback, and/or suggestions regarding 9-1-1 training, services and Emergency Notification. Feel free to contact the manager of the Washington State 9-1-1/TTY Education Program.

If you would like more information, please contact us at:

Phone: 206.323.5770 V/TTY
Email: 911@hsdc.org