DeafPing founder tells us about winning a grant and what’s next for the free door alert tool (BSL)

Earlier this year I shared the story of DeafPing on The Limping Chicken.  I’d built a simple free tool after working as a Relay Advisor and hearing the same daily frustration again and again: deaf and hard-of-hearing people missing deliveries, visitors and carers because traditional doorbells, flashing systems and smart doorbells don’t always work in real life.

The idea is deliberately straightforward. Sign up at deafping.com (free, about 60 seconds), get your unique QR code, stick it by the door or buzzer panel. 

When someone arrives they scan it with their phone camera — no app, no account, no Wi-Fi needed on your side — and you get an instant text saying someone’s at the door.

Within a month of launching we passed 300 users entirely through word of mouth in the deaf community. 

That number is now over 500 across the UK, and the messages keep coming: people who had accepted “sorry we missed you” cards as normal for years, carers finally able to know when they’d arrived without someone sitting by the window, students in halls who no longer rely on flatmates to knock.

Since that first piece we’ve also started offering weatherproof QR stickers and plaques. 

A piece of paper taped to the door doesn’t survive a British winter, so these are designed to last, printed with your unique code, and posted free in the UK. 

Individual users still get the core service free forever — the running costs of the texts are covered by a small Pro plan for families and by Airbnb hosts who use it for guests. That commitment hasn’t changed.

The response on TikTok has been a big part of the growth. Videos showing how to use the DeafPing stickers have now passed 800,000 views combined. People are seeing how simple it is — scan, text arrives — and sharing it with friends and family who need it.

The biggest development since May is winning an £8,000 grant from UnLtd’s social enterprise awards programme. This funding will directly support more deaf and hard-of-hearing people getting access to DeafPing. 

It lets us scale the practical side: producing and distributing more free or low-cost weatherproof stickers, improving the product, and continuing to keep the core alert free. 

Accessibility tools shouldn’t come with a big price tag or complicated installation, especially for something as everyday as knowing when someone’s at your door. The UnLtd grant helps make that real for more households.

We’re also upgrading the stickers to NFC versions so visitors can simply tap their phone instead of scanning a QR code — even easier for delivery drivers and carers. And we’re getting into contact with Action Deafness UK, the Deaf-led charity, to explore how we can work together to reach more people who need a simple door alert.

We’re still the same simple system. No hardware to install, no landlord permission needed, works in flats next to the buzzer panel, and the visitor does the scanning so there’s almost no learning curve. Delivery drivers already scan QR codes dozens of times a day.

If you’re deaf or hard of hearing and you’ve ever missed a parcel or a visitor, give it a try at deafping.com. It takes a minute. If you know someone who would find it useful, please share it. 

And if you work with a housing association, council, deaf charity or organisation and want to talk about getting stickers to the people who need them, get in touch — that’s exactly the kind of partnership the UnLtd grant is helping us build.

Sometimes the most useful thing is the simplest one. A QR code (or NFC tap) and a text message is still all it takes.

By Zakee at deafping.com