When a siren can never be loud enough

Sirens blared continually during last summer’s Operation Protective Edge, warning Israel’s citizens when missiles were launched from Gaza. But Gal Roknian was at a disadvantage.

Roknian, a mother of three, is deaf.

“I’m the adult in the responsible role, but I can’t always be responsible if I’m not capable of understanding,” Roknian said via a sign language translator, while presenting at the recent Beit Issie Shapiro 6th International Conference on Disabilities in Tel Aviv.

Roknian, director of guidance at the Institute for the Advancement of Deaf Persons in Israel, says in a country with 700,000 deaf and hard of hearing citizens, emergency personnel must be able to use some basic sign language. Access to emergency services is not enough, said Roknian. “We discovered we need to give training to those first-responders — the police, the fire brigade, the emergency health care people.”

DPII has run dozens of workshops for first responders in recent years, and has also promoted the use of Signs in Crisis, a mobile app developed at Ben Gurion University of the Negev in partnership with emergency and advocacy organizations.

The visual glossary depicts Israel Sign Language phrases for words such as “doctor” and “police,” with translations in Hebrew, Arabic, Russian and English. It also includes a screen for drawing and writing, offering an additional real-time communication channel.

“With just a little awareness and a little bit of guidance and use of the accessories that do exist,” said Roknian, “you can decrease that kind of tension and feeling of emergency.”

How do you say ‘emergency’?

The Signs in Crisis app is designed for emergency personnel and can be used by anyone assisting a deaf or hard-of-hearing person in a crisis. Following are some useful Israeli Sign Language phrases with illustrations from the app.

You arrived here from a terror attack:

You are in the hospital:

I am with you: