Emergency Communications

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) released Alerting the Whole Community: Removing Barriers to Alerting Accessibility, a report outlining the current efforts made to ensure accessibility for people with access and functional needs within the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS). According to the report, approximately 25% of Americans may need “assistance or accommodation to receive emergency alerts,” including people with disabilities and limited English proficiency.

June 2013 — The Emergency Access Advisory Committee (EAAC) of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released a report entitled Proposed Procedures for the TTY as a text terminal in legacy 9-1-1 PSAPs without IP Connection, which outlines the use of TTY terminals as a text-to-911 interim solution for Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) without IP connectivity.  The report highlights that TTY may lack some capabilities often used in SMS text messages.  For example, TTY messages have a limited set of characters available for use, are unable to use both upper and lowercase let

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).

May 17, 2013 —The FCC released a Report and Order [FCC 13-64] regarding the roll out of text-to-911, specifically requiring wireless carriers as well as providers of text messaging services to provide a “bounce-back” message to consumers who attempt to use text-to-911 but where the service is unavailable or the text is unable to be transmitted.

Recently published in the February 2013 issue of Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation published by the journal for the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine (ACRM), this Emergency Preparedness Checklist for People with Disabilities Information and Education Page was created by Wireless RERC researcher, John Morris and Wireless RERC co-director, Mike Jones.  The checklist is meant to aid people with disabilities in putting together an emergency plan and recommend essential items necessary to survive in the event of an emergency or natural disaster.