Other News

March 2014 — United Cerebral Palsy (UCP) will partner with Sprint to promote Sprint Relay, a speech-to-speech (STS) service provided for people with hearing and speech disabilities.  Although Sprint Relay has been providing communications assistance for over 20 years, UCP’s newfound partnership with Sprint will help raise awareness of these services.  Specifically, Sprint Relay allows Sprint customers to dial *STS (*787) to directly access STS services and connect with a Communications Assistant (CA).  The service also provides customers with the ability to “email call instructions for the

February 2014 - FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) Program Management Office (PMO) is holding the first webinar of the IPAWS Unique Alert Services (UAS) Series on Wednesday, March 12th, 2014 at 12:00 PM Eastern Time.  This webinar series is IPAWS PMO’s answer to the alerting practitioners’ request to provide more information on unique alert services and tools available on the market.

February 2014 — Sprint has been selected as the recipient of the 2014 Change Maker Award. The annual award is presented by Quality Services for the Autism Community (QSAC) to recognize companies that have “made a meaningful commitment to supporting the needs of children and adults with developmental disabilities.” This year, Sprint is being honored for their accessible technology, which includes products and services such as Sprint’s ID Accessibility Packs and Accessible Education ID Pack.

February 2014 — The GSMA announced the winners of the 19^th Annual Global Mobile awards at a ceremony held at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.  The ceremony recognizes new developments in mobile technologies ranging from health and banking to network infrastructure.  The 2014 award winners included assistive technologies, such as Turkcell Dream Partner a mobile application with text-to-speech and speech-to-text technology, Wibbitz Text-to-Video Technology a mobile app which can convert text articles into videos, and the Magic Pencil, a distance learning device created

February 2014 — The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) released a new Independent Study Course: IS-368: Including People with Disabilities and Others with Access and Functional Needs in Disaster Operations.  The course “provides an overview of disabilities and access and functional needs” and further explains how disaster staff and emergency management can ensure that all practices are inclusive and accessible.  Following the course, disaster staff and emergency management should be aware of the legislative and regulatory framework ensuring the rights of people with disabilities in