The pilot project for emergency calls in Finnish sign language will end at the end of 2023

Kela and the Emergency Response Centre Agency will end their joint pilot project on emergency calls in Finnish sign language in the 112 Suomi application. The project ends as the funding period ends.

For the past two years or so, sign language users have been able to make video calls to the Emergency Response Centre via the 112 Suomi app. This was a pilot project carried out in cooperation between the Emergency Response Centre Agency and Kela. The video link for sign language users was intended for real emergencies. The pilot project will end at the end of 2023 because its funding has not been extended.

The pilot project started in summer 2021. The aim of the project was to find out how well Finnish sign language and 112 Suomi application work for reporting emergencies and in the operations of public authorities in general.

“There have been 600–700 contacts each year, out of which 10–20 calls a year have been connected to the Emergency Response Centre. The pilot project provided useful experience of the technology, the implementation and cooperation between authorities,” says Tuomas Sola, the Project Manager at Kela.

In practice, the emergency calls in sign language were connected to an interpreter at the Kela Centre for Interpreter Services for the Disabled via a video link in the 112 Suomi application. The interpreter from the Interpreter Services would then make a voice call to the Emergency Response Centre. 

“We found that sign language interpretation works in roughly the same way as the use of interpreter services in foreign-language emergency calls. Compared with an ordinary emergency call, the use of an interpreter inevitably creates a slight delay in the handling of the emergency call, but apart from that, the service worked in the same way as voice calls interpreted into another language,” says Taito Vainio, Director General of the Emergency Response Centre Agency Finland.

The Emergency Response Centre Agency will adopt real-time text (RTT) as an additional emergency notification method in 2025. At present, there is a service available where people can report an emergency by text message. However, the text message service requires that the user has registered with the service, unlike real-time text, which can be used in a phonecall to the emergency number or via the 112 Suomi app.