Join this session to hear of the journey of North Central Texas 9-1-1 from awareness to the implementation of RTT in a PSAP as well as many lessons learned along the way. You will walk away from this session more informed, armed with all the information you need to implement RTT to RTT in your 9-1-1 center and hopefully motivated to take action!

Over 5 years ago, the 9-1-1 industry was not concerned about Real Time Text (RTT) as this was a "carrier issue". The FCC was mandating the wireless carriers provide Real Time Text as a replacement for the legacy TTY technology. As they began meeting the mandate, it was apparent the 9-1-1 system would not accommodate this new technology. Therefore, RTT calls were backwards converted to TTY in the 9-1-1 Emergency Call Centers. Unfortunately, this came with limitations and risk to the 9-1-1 Centers in our country. RTT to RTT for 9-1-1 will bring many benefits to both the callers and the telecommunicators, but the implementation is not going to be quick. There is an attitude RTT is not necessary for 9-1-1 because of the very low number of RTT calls today. There is also a great lack of awareness in the 9-1-1 community regarding this new technology. While the frequency of calls is low today, the consequences of missing or mishandling an RTT 9-1-1 call could cost lives.