Emergency Alert System (EAS)

July 2014 – The Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in the Matter of Review of the Emergency Alert System [EB Docket No.

May 2014 – The Wireless RERC filed comments regarding EAS Rules to Support Multilingual EAS and Emergency Information [EB Docket No. 04-296] corroborating the work of the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council (MMTC) in their efforts to increase access to emergency information for people whose native language is not English, specifically noting the need for the inclusion of American Sign Language (ASL).  ASL is a distinct language used by individuals of the deaf community and is fundamentally unlike English.

October 2013 — The Wireless RERC filed comments in response to a Public Notice [EB Docket No. 04-296] issued by The Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau (the Bureau) of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regarding issues identified during the first nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) on November 9, 2011. The comments filed by the Wireless RERC specifically responded to the Bureau’s request for comment on how the FCC can address the accessibility of visual text crawls accompanying EAS alerts.

September 2013 – The Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau (the Bureau) of Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a Public Notice [EB Docket No.

May 23, 2013 — The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released the report “Emergency Alerting: Capabilities Have Improved, but Additional Guidance and Testing are Needed.” The report reviews the changing capabilities of the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) in addition to the results of the nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS).