Accessible text-to-911 redesign for the Deaf community

AccesSOS is a free app that lets people contact 911 without speaking. Users tap simple icons to describe what’s happening, and AccesSOS shares their location and details with dispatchers. I redesigned the main emergency reporting experience to be faster.

role: Lead Product Designer
timeline: Aug – Dec 2023
team: 1 PM, 1 Engineer, CEO

AccesSOS home screen with a map and a Get help button, beside the “What help do you need?” screen with Medical, Police, Mental, and Fire options

impact

AccesSOS grew from one county to nationwide

When I first joined AccesSOS, the app was only live in Berkeley, CA. Since then, my work has helped the platform expand nationwide:

200+
Lives saved
45
U.S. states
83K+
Registered users
7.6M+
Social media impressions

Reflection

What I learned designing for a tech nonprofit

Usability over aesthetics

The hardest part was designing icons that read instantly to someone in a panic across languages. The final set isn’t perfectly consistent, but every icon is unambiguous – under time pressure that’s the tradeoff that matters.

Co-design with the team

AccesSOS has a few full-time employees and relies heavily on volunteer designers and engineers. I co-designed with the team that would actually maintain it, and documented decisions clearly for whoever would come next.