City Agrees to Improve 911 Service for the Deaf : Communications: Settlement with Justice Department resolves complaint filed after woman using TDD equipment was unable to call for help.

Los Angeles officials reached a settlement Tuesday with the Justice Department requiring the city to improve its 911 emergency services for the deaf.

The agreement resolves a formal complaint filed against the city for violating the Americans With Disabilities Act, which requires cities to ensure that their telephone emergency services provide access to individuals using telecommunication devices for the deaf, or TDDs.

The complaint was filed after a 2-year-old child suffered a serious head injury. His mother, who is deaf, tried three times to reach the city’s 911 center by TDD before finally taking the boy to the hospital herself.

“Access to 911 services has been a major problem for millions of Americans who are deaf, hard of hearing or who have speech impairments,” said Deval L. Patrick, assistant attorney general for civil rights. “When a 911 call goes unanswered, it may mean the difference between life and death.” TDD callers use regular phone lines to transmit typed messages to other TDD devices.

Under the settlement, the city pledged to upgrade its services to ensure that 911 access for TDD users is as good as that for telephone users. The city will upgrade TDD-compatible equipment in its central dispatch office and install new equipment in its 27 other answering stations. A Justice Department official estimated that the equipment will cost the city $50,000.

The city agreed to train emergency dispatchers to operate TDDs and to require dispatchers to record TDD calls electronically in the same manner as voice telephone calls. City officials also must develop a public education program for TDD users seeking 911 service.

David Novak, a spokesman for Mayor Richard Riordan, said Tuesday evening that the improvements to 911 service were “important in a city as diverse as Los Angeles. It’s 1994, and people are much more aware now of the need to be accessible to everyone.”

By signing the agreement, Los Angeles becomes the second city to be forced to comply with the disabilities act. Berkeley entered into a similar settlement in May. A Justice Department official said investigators believe most cities have not bought TDD answering equipment, and those that have do not train their dispatchers to use the devices.

“This agreement should serve as guidance for other large cities that are working to comply” with the act, Patrick said. “Individuals with disabilities have been paying for access to these services for many years, and it is time that this access is now provided.”

In a letter sent to the mayors of 300 cities nationwide, Patrick notified municipal officials that “your telephone emergency services, including 911 services, also must provide direct access to individuals who use TDDs,” and he urged them to review their 911 answering technology.

“It’s about time,” said Marcella M. Meyer, chief executive officer of the Greater Los Angeles Council for Deafness, speaking through a sign language interpreter. “I hope this will have a rippling effect on 911 services across the country. Someday, someone’s going to really need it.”

Meyer said a 911 dispatcher hung up last weekend on a TDD call from a deaf Los Angeles woman injured by a massive stroke.