Help, in your own way

Language is the first choice in every path in this app — before any question about your situation. This app's single source language is English, and other languages come through the translation drop-down that stands at the top of every page of this app. Choosing a language there carries through everything: the pages, the steps, the privacy promise, and the confirmations. Sign languages count as languages here: a signer chooses sign at the same first step as everyone else. Nothing in this app is maintained in separate language versions — the drop-down is the one door, so the words can never drift apart.

For people whose language is sign, sign is not an extra feature added at the end. It leads. Signed guidance comes first, people who sign can answer and take part in sign, and no one is asked to squeeze their language into someone else's words. This section is the doorway into learning sign and into finding the Deaf community's own teachers and resources — taught by the community, in its own language, wherever the doors below lead.

If you are beginning: start with the free lessons below, go at your own pace, and practice with patience. If you are hearing and learning sign to reach someone you love, you are welcome here — that is how access grows.

No step anywhere in this app is voice-only. Everything can be done by text — typing or tapping — and confirmations come back in writing. The phone path for Deaf people is the text path.

• 711 relay: dial 7-1-1 to reach the free telecommunications relay service, which connects text and voice callers. Captioned telephone services are also free to use.
• Text-to-911: available in many areas, not all. Where it is not, a voice call through relay still reaches emergency services. Check your local area, and in an emergency use the path that works where you are.
• At a Help Point: if you need to sign and the staff do not, this app's system carries the conversation, and a live interpreter is offered as your choice for anything you must sign.

Your printable card

Print this card, cut it out, and carry it. Show it at a police stop, a hospital, a workplace, a school, or any window where speaking is hard.

Print this card

Nothing in this section requires a phone, money, or internet. Everything here can be reached by walking in, by dialing 2-1-1 from any phone, or from a printed page carried by a helper, a shelter, or a library.

• Start with the screening: the USA.gov Benefit Finder is free and anonymous — and a library or 2-1-1 worker can walk it with you, free.
• Tonight: dial 2-1-1 for the shelter and food nearest you.
• Health with no insurance: HRSA health centers must see you regardless of ability to pay. Ask for the sliding-fee scale, and ask them to help you check Medicaid at the same visit.
• Food, housing, bills: SNAP, WIC, and LIHEAP through your state; housing help through your local housing authority. The Grants page walks each one, step by step.
• The library is your office: free internet, free printing, free help finding official forms — and a place this page can be printed and carried out the door.

Every path here is a full path. In this app, no step exists only as a picture: everything works by listening and speaking or by screen reader, with braille-ready and large-print copies of forms and checklists. Nothing flashes, and nothing changes brightness suddenly — calm screens, always.

• Free books that talk: the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, at the Library of Congress, lends braille and talking books free of charge, sends a free talking-book player on loan, offers downloads through BARD, and mails everything postage-free. Call 1-888-NLS-READ (1-888-657-7323). (Source: Library of Congress, loc.gov.)
• Combined hearing and vision loss: iCanConnect gives free communication equipment and training (icanconnect.org).
• Equipment before buying: your state Assistive Technology program lends screen readers and braille displays — try before anyone pays.
• For sighted helpers: braille learning materials are available free from the National Library Service and from official library sources, so the people around a blind person can learn to read and write braille with them. Helpers use the library path — there are no grants for individuals for this, and anyone charging for it should be refused.

This app teaches and prepares. It walks you through what CPR is, how it is done, and how to get ready — calmly, step by step — so that when you stand in front of a real instructor, you already know the ground.

What this app does not do: it does not certify you. Real CPR certification comes only from a registered provider — the American Heart Association or the American Red Cross — with an in-person, hands-on skills test. Any completion this app gives is a Certificate of Completion only, under the disclaimer below. Anyone selling an instant online "certification" with no hands-on test is selling paper, not proof.

Practice before you pay: many libraries lend CPR practice kits, and fire departments, hospitals, the Red Cross, and the AHA hold free practice days. The printable letter below can be handed to a library or fire station to ask about a loan kit or a free class.

Print this letter

One more kind of help stands in this app, and it has its own page: watching your surroundings. Locked out of your car; something suspicious placed on, in, or under it; being followed, and getting home safe without leading anyone to your door; drugs put in drinks when you are out; the signs that tell you something is happening before the next step; and how to report every one of them. Calm scenario cards, each with what it looks like, what to do, and how to prepare ahead — begin on the Car & Street Safety page.

One more kind of help stands in this app, and it also has its own page: the safety of the home itself. Why it exists is her testimony — electrocuted twice in her own home, by her smart thermostat and her smart lock, on the same day. What is dangerous and what is safe; precautions for every season; how to investigate your home with your own eyes; how to know when the next step is 911, a licensed electrician, the utility, or a landlord in writing; how to tell a real smoke or carbon monoxide detector from a decoy; how to sweep your house for hidden devices; the signs of a bug, a line tap, or a compromised device; and how WiFi waves can track people through walls with no camera at all. Begin on the Electrical Safety page.