Picture: the President of the Disability Intergroup of the European Parliament, Mr Adam Kosa and Gunnar Hellström (from EENA112)

Yesterday at the 112 awards ceremony in Burssels, organized by the European Emergency Number Association (EENA), Gunnar Hellström was recognized for his work. He received the  – “Outstanding REACH112 award”.

Gunnar Hellstrom's has contributed to a accessible 112 in Europe. Gunnar specializes in Telecommunications and Information Technology accessible for people with disabilities. He is also the founder of Omnitor, Sweden, a company devoted to product development and service provision in this area. Through a series of engagements, Gunnar has provided international leadership and has had focused on the creation of numerous international standards for accessible telecommunication services, including real-time text conversation in multimedia, the Total Conversation concept, text telephony, wireless multimedia and video communications for sign language and lip-reading.

Gunnar says: “I am glad to see Total Conversation well picked up after all efforts to standardize it and get it implemented. I want to see it further spread in all phones, enabling convenient communication for all in every situation, including 112 emergency calls. I am also very glad that we have got the opportunity to demonstrate this in the REACH112 project.” 

Gunnar served as Rapporteur for Accessibility to Multimedia within ITU-T Study Group 16 during 1997-2004, and has performed many projects for development and policy creation in accessible communication. Emergency service access for people with disabilities being an essential function, has always been a priority in Gunnar's standardization and development work, for example in adding the accessibility aspects for people with disabilities in the emergency service standards work in IETF-ECRIT and NG112. He has also led the development of "Allan eC," a multi-media communication product that optimizes personal communication, among others for deaf users, making benefit of some of the standards he has been working with. Currently, Gunnar serves as Technical Coordinator in the REACH112 European project for improving personal communication and access to emergency services for people with disabilities. Gunnar's dedication has led to the proposal of the REACH112 project and has inspired many professionals in providing accessible communications and 112 service. The standards he proposed and worked are now used by many others and provide the guidelines for the deployment of an accessible 112 service in Europe.

Website of the 112 Awards Ceremony and official pictures: www.112awards.eu

Contact details:
Gunnar Hellström, + 46 (0)708 204 288, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Paulina Wlostowski, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it