Police Station

Context

In France, 7 million people are affected by hearing loss, including 500,000 with profound or severe deafness; around 100,000 people speak French Sign Language (Fondation pour l'Audition / DREES; French Ministry of Culture). Over the past five years, 23% of users have given up on at least one right when dealing with public services, with people with disabilities disproportionately affected (Défenseur des droits, October 2025). Refusals to file a complaint and refusals to use an interpreter continue to be reported, due to officers' lack of awareness of the right to an adapted communication arrangement (written question to the French National Assembly, 2024). The Défenseur des droits has examined the resources made available to police stations and gendarmerie units for receiving deaf people (decision no. 2019-245).

Legal framework

The law of 11 February 2005 recognises French Sign Language as a language in its own right. The 2016 French Digital Republic Act imposes a telephone accessibility requirement, extended to companies with over €250 million in revenue. The ordinance of 6 September 2023 provides for fines of up to €75,000 for an individual and 1% of revenue for a legal entity in case of non-compliance. From 1 October 2026, the accessibility requirement will cover 100% of public reception hours, up from 50% today. Article 76 of that same 2005 law also guarantees any deaf person, before the courts, the adapted communication arrangement of their choice, at the State's expense.

Use case

A deaf or signing person visits a police station to file a complaint or for questioning. The officer and the person each speak their own language; translation happens in real time on their own devices, with local processing of the exchange, in situations where a physical interpreter is sometimes delayed or unavailable.

Architecture

V1 (prototype)

A catalogue of words and phrases specific to routine procedures (reception, filing a complaint, questioning), developed with industry professionals and people fluent in sign language.

V2 (target)

Progressive extension of the catalogue to other procedures, interoperable with the generic catalogue of the consumer app.

Patents involved

• Multilingual translation
• Multilingual translation refinement

Indicators

• Procedure catalogue words and phrases covered — 80 words and 60 phrases in V1, extended to 200 phrases for commercial deployment
• Pilot police stations equipped — to be defined with the funder

Estimated budget

€150,000 for the complete development of the police station sector catalogue. Funding for a sector-specific prototype can be carried by a single institution or pooled among several institutions within the same network.

Funder profile sought

A police service, gendarmerie or institutional funder wishing to fund the development of the police station sector catalogue in exchange for visibility and priority access to the prototype.