Emergency Preparedness and Emergency Communication Access

News About Various Technologies

1. Television

Emergency information
- Visual access to emergency information is required by FCC regulations. For more information, see: http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/dro/captioning_regs.html#79.2
- Six separate TV stations that did not comply with these regulations were fined by the FCC in 2005
- Voice-to-Text Captioning Software
- RCA Alert Guard TV - This television, in limited supply, informs of an alert, watch, or warning, even when you are using the TV to view videos or DVDs. RCA was recently acquired by a Chinese company and the Alert Guard project manager left. No other companies are yet producing televisions with this feature.
- Battery-Operated Portable TV with Captioning - The Toshiba MD9DP1 (a 9" DVD combination) is the only option known to be available. It has an adapter to use with a car's cigarette lighter outlet.

Digital Television (DTV)
- The FCC set the deadline for a transition to digital TV for December 31, 2006. At this time, analog programs are scheduled to stop broadcasting.
- The FCC may choose to extend the deadline until 85% of homes in an area can watch digital TV programs.
- The spectrum used by analog televisions is needed for other services and would be freed up.
- There are many reports of problems with digital TVs and captions: Some broadcast, cable and satellite networks are not captioning their digital TV feeds.
- Sometimes captions are stripped or not re-encoded for digital broadcasts.
- Some older cable boxes can't decode captions.
- Some caption displays must be activated through the HD/digital cable box

For more information:
- Digital TV Access: http://www.dtvaccess.org
- Consumer Fact Sheet on DTV (general information): http://www.dtv.gov

2. Radio

NOAA Weather Radio
- The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) provides information that is broadcast to weather radios. It's ironic that the weather radio information starts as text and is then converted to audio.
- Several brands of weather radios can provide text to inform you that there is an alert, watch, or warning, but they may give you no other information.
- Some weather radios can be connected to strobe lights, a vibrating device, siren, or home alerting systems.
- Some weather radios will make you choose between an audible alert or a voice description instead of being allowed to select both.
- Some weather radios may have a jack for audio.
- Funding is needed from the federal government for the Weather Radio Improvement Program (WRIP) to provide the full text of all the information that is audible. If the funding is awarded this year, the best case scenario would probably require three years for it to be implemented.
- Current weather radio equipment will not be able to receive the full text when it does become available through WRIP.
- A weather radio doesn't give school closings, traffic problems and other information, but can alert or wake you for tornado, flash flood, chemical spill, nuclear power plant incident, wildfire, and about 50 more events where seconds may count.
- For more info: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/special_need.htm

Digital Radio
- Scrolling text of the latest headline news is now being done in the UK by British Broadcasting Co., with the text refreshed every 20 seconds, 24 hours a day.
- Radio Data System (RDS) allows text to be sent over an FM radio signal. Your radio already uses RDS to display the station number you are listening to, and sometimes additional information.
- Some vehicles like the Toyota Prius are already being sold with screens to display RDS

3. Telephones

Hearing Aid Compatibility
- The number of hearing aid compatible wireless phones will increase soon, but choices will still be limited.
- For more information: http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/accessiblewireless.html

Relay Services
- Internet-based relay services like Internet Protocol (IP) Relay and Video Relay Service (VRS) can't provide location-specific information, so consumers are told not to use them in an emergency.
- The CapTel (captioned telephone) can be used to make 911 calls.
- When landline phones go down in an emergency, they may not get service back for minutes, hours or days. The FCC helped to set up Priority Service Restoration for relay services; relay providers who apply for, and are approved, will be put back in operation as quickly as possible during an emergency. (MD and VA were the first to apply).

Reverse 911 (R-911)
- This system works the opposite of 911 - instead of you calling to report an emergency, an emergency operations will call you to tell you about one.
- R-911 can make TTY calls, but your community must buy the TTY feature as an add-on its R-911 package.
- Emergency messages by voice will need to be well-paced, clear enough to understand, and ideally able to repeat the message for a caller with hearing loss.
- Some localities with R-911 and similar systems will give a number you can call for more information; when you dial it you may get a voice menu.

Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP)
- This Internet-based system of making and receiving phone calls is now taking off as wireless calling did.
- VOIP may be used with a cordless phone, but not all cordless phones are hearing aid compatible or have jacks for cochlear implant patch cords.
- A recent FCC rule will soon require most companies to make VOIP work with 911's location finding feature.

4. Text Alerts

Local Text Alerts
- These are now popping up all over the country; Washington, DC and Virginia's Arlington County & Fairfax County offer them.
- Typically you can go to a website to sign up, and usually you can choose to have emergency alerts sent to several devices.

Local TV station alerts
- Some local TV stations offer a service where you can sign up for breaking news updates by going to their website.

Emergency E-mail Network
- You can sign up for free alerts about emergencies anywhere in the country at: www.emergencye.com

The Weather Channel
- Weather alerts are available, but this service has a monthly fee: www.theweatherchannel.com

State Programs
- Maine and North Carolina have state programs to distribute weather radios and text devices to residents who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Workplace Programs
- Some workplaces now send alerts to the computers or text devices of their employees

5. Visual Alarms

- Low frequency alarms are now being explored.
- A new add-on device claims to work with existing smoke detector technology such as light signalers.
- Some investigation is also underway on the use of different colored lights or other forms of visual signaling - e.g. one signal for sheltering in place, one for evacuating the building

6. Message Boards

- Message boards are springing up along highways and in public transportation.
- Rail Network TV on MARTA in Atlanta provides broadcast TV with captions

Research - Some important research is now being done on emergency communication. Examples are:

Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)
- Sponsored by Dept. of Homeland Security with the Federal Communications Commission, NOAA, government, public and private partners
- Seeks to create an all-hazard warning system that can be used by federal, state, local and tribal levels
- Alerts would have audio, video, text and data messages
- Some testing has already being done

Accessible Emergency Notification and Communication: State of the Science
- November 2-3, 2005
- Presented by the RERC on Telecommunications Access
- Kellogg Conference Hotel at Gallaudet University, Washington, DC
- http://tap.gallaudet.edu/emergencycommconf.htm

Access Alert Project
- WGBH Center for Accessible Media
- American Institutes for Research
- Marcia Brooks, Project Director
- Mary Watkins, Outreach Director
- Marcia_Brooks@wgbh.org

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(c)2005 by Northern Virginia Resource Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Persons (NVRC), www.nvrc.org. When sharing this information, please ensure credit is given to NVRC