Emergency Notifications for People with Disabilities Mon, October 6 10:15AM 12:00PM Caribbean IV Facilitated by Richard Ray & Donna Platt Options for sending out emergency alerts and information are expanding. However, are they accessible for people with disabilities, especially those with hearing loss and low vision or blindness? Attendees will examine the options and protocols for disseminating emergency alerts and information to this population and review the in-progress draft information document to ensure that emergency entities send out notices appropriately. Federal laws and rulings will be included. Deliverables: Identify best practices in formatting emergency information. o Example: Send messages that are complete, yet simple and easy to understand. Identify steps needed to make information about resources disseminated by cooperating agencies accessible to people with disabilities. o Examples: Route messages so that they will reach every device in the affected area promptly. Disseminate messages to anyone that registers to receive messages on a timely basis. Develop websites as primary resource for supplemental information for those using computers as well as mobile devices. Target Audience: Policy writers on emergency public information Public Information Officers People who oversee dissemination of emergency alerts and information People who send out emergency alerts and information to public People who handle incoming calls (e.g., hotlines, 2-1-1, 3-1-1, 5-1-1, emergency services, etc.) from people requesting information such as shelter locations, evacuation routes, disaster recovery centers, etc.
Emergency Notifications for People with Disabilities - NOTES Mon, October 6 10:15AM 12:00PM Caribbean IV Facilitated by Richard Ray & Donna Platt Donna Platt and Richard Ray, co-chairs of the Accessibility, introduced Jim House and Mark Fletcher as the new co-leads on a document for emergency notification for people with disabilities. There are different types of methods for disseminating emergency information: Alert, Information, Live Assistance. Mark Fletcher worked with EACC, and noted that many time people with disabilities are treated as second class citizens and wants us to get this right when we use various methods of notification. He went through his slides that posed questions that will help develop the paper. IPAWS Integrated Public Alert and Warning Systems Which modalities are available to send out alerts beside TV and radio? We need to take advantage of new technologies. Satellite isn t regional how do you target certain areas? How can user select what is best for them? Our biggest challenge is that technology changes. How should it look? What are best practices for formatting messages? What should the look and feel of the message be to best communicate the urgency and required action? What requirements should the website include in providing accessible to people? Fletch shared an experience with a hotel fire, where he received audio instruction to leave room but stay in lobby due to breaking glass falling down outside. Had he not been able to hear, he would have gone outside to get away from the fire and found more danger. Timing on the delivery? Is there policy on timeline frame for sending alerts. Identify steps. Could have delays between initiating alerts to receiver, with the transitioning across modalities. Set formats exist with EAS. Newscast reports that haven t made to EAS alert are lost unless broadcast is captioned. Ray personal experience, attending Olympics in Palm Springs. Crawls across the screen about a thunderstorm also had audio for more info s a barrier for individuals who are Deaf or have hearing loss. Platt FCC regulations says TV alert requires visual too but doesn t give details. Mandatory Testing What protocols should be established for testing different modes? How often shall l they be tested? Should we just test the mode, or the operator implementing the mode?
Platt Radios are tested regularly but testing for People with Disabilities (PWDs) is not being done. California fires, PWD didn t get. Tests for volume are different from the smaller numbers. It is critical to test the operational process. Alternative Communications Identify alternatives for contacting N-1-1 besides voice and TTY Ray - Problem for Deaf when using relay. 311 is based on jurisdiction. It could connect me to incorrect 311 center. Needs to be a national DB. Over 100 relay call centers across the country. Call is routed to the available call center. We rely on IP and Video relay What type of accessibility is needed to provide supplemental information on websites for those using computers as well as mobile devices? What are the requirements expected in sending out alerts/information? Brevity? Electronic Printed? Randall Gallant: NG platform provide means to support multiple services outside 911. There are hooks that can work, but need to be defined. What about websites? Deaf will look at a website to get information about shelters, weather, where to go, etc. Often there are videos, but not captioned. We need accessibility. Also for people with vision disabilities need to be ensured access. Something as simple as contrast can be an issue. Ray clarified, when alerts are sent out, the language is high level. We need layman terms and there is no rules regarding this. Want message with all content but with basic language. Need happy balance. Pw/cognitive disabilities are having trouble so we need to ensure message is best. When English is used, language used must have comprehensive understood by many Deb from King County: Some methods require registration, some covered in jurisdiction. Some rural don t have funding for such methods. Sometimes it s an Emergency management issue. We need to look at federal requirements. Guidelines are not clear so the purpose is to collect info. PSAPs sometimes take the lead to do reverse ENS. GOJO: if we ask Feds to write, it will be a long wait. If you write as a NENA Requirement document, then it gives the Federal government something to work with. Ray: That is exactly what we are hoping for. Work with PSAPs, come up with recommendations, and then between NENA and DOJ, we can use a previous model. Includes identifying specific issues and put out recommendations with each issue.
Gerst: We need to address and clarify Level/settings of where we are today: 1) EAS system guidelines in place 2) Wireless - emergency alerts in coordination with FEMA, regardless if signed up. Proponents in that are built in and accessible. Vibrates in a specific way, and has a specific tone. A working group (WG) at the FCC is working to improve this method and make more accessible. WG is looking at how to develop, Carriers pass through what they get. GA Tech studying how to make messages more accessible. 3) Reverse 9-1-1 where people sign up for (only 3 people have this in their PSAP system) Fletch: Acknowledged that this may be a potential modality for this process. Power Outage & Congestion What options are available for people who are Deaf, Deaf-Blind (DB) and Hard of Hearing (HOH) receive alerts and information? Platt: If sent by County it may say tornado warning and then directs to go listen to the radio for more info. People who are Deaf can t do that. We need to look into how we can get more info to PWD. There is some testing for Public radio talking about caption radio and testing in Gulf states with NPR and? How long the power continue? People need access to info when have power outages. Best Title for Information Document? Emergency Notification Services for People with Disabilities OR Emergency Communication Services for PwD GOJO make it as narrow as possible, recommends the 1 st. Talk only about requirements? Or large doc for all the services Jenny Hansen Broad Title for overall target and goal of committee but divide it up. Specific regulatory language for specific challenges For example: Formatting an Alert message TCs train eye to specific areas of the screen. Similarly, when see Emerg alert want to see in the same way. Start scripting our recommendations based on challenges Broad Doc with appendix with specific instances. Similar to using color in formatting. And break it out into regions as some have access to infrastructure where others don t. Jim7house@gmail.com FletcherM@avaya.com
RR let s talk about wireless notifications. I have experience and found a lot is still voluntary in terms of text alerts. As long as you are in the area you will get whether you live in that area or not. Perhaps there is an explosion, my neighbor may not get same notification that I get because of different service used. How can we ensure everyone in THAT area knows what s going on? Deb this is technology based. Matt Gerst wireless emergency alert only voluntary by the carriers. Have infrastructure to provide through FEMA and cover 95% of consumers. On consumer side, equipment that support (it s not voluntary can opt out) is all phones within the last two years. Limited amount of uses 1) president issues alert nationwide 2) imminent threat (tornado,) with standards FEMA and they verify and okay to send 3) Amber Alerts. Looking at putting in Hyperlinks but limited by character space. Q-is it general alerts? Because each system has it s own focus. We need to determine that. DP we need to get information and identify all the issues, and provide recommendations to the government. Have concerns about EAS. FCC requested comments. RR even though there may be captions, are they fed to TV or adding their own on top of what s put in the first message? Right now the captions we get are not necessarily following the script. GOJO reverse 911 people will put something in a hurry, be good to get guidelines, But EAS System these must go through FEMA before getting to the broadcaster and broadcaster doesn t add must be as received. There is a process for that Christy Permenter- Brighthouse Networks, and Allyson Blevins have information to share. They do regular testing early AM but if we get something, it can go across all networks. You may get a scroll from the local too. RR - Another question is describing the picture, perhaps in the background. Ours is all text and the text is READ exactly what is sent. Fletch says it may be some local is Simalcasting local with EAS. Andrea Wilson FEMA has webinars on their website. Deb This topic is so broad. What is the need from the 9-1-1 group that we can help with? How can we narrow the scope? Toni provided the history to the initial document where NENA started with ENS systems. She suggested looking at the existing document when working on this new document: #56-503 http://www.nena.org/?wideareanotification Jenny Hanson, Kimball Use case, take to different regions and modes of communications, take example power outage in LA is still occurring in different areas.
Go to various levels of degradation level, take then each to create spreadsheet then exponentially degrade it. Then look at push pull info, and use same scenario, then keep building table top until worst case. And educate each other. Look at formulating messages, Identify infrastructure. Standard of care for each block in that spreadsheet Is there a document or number available? Jim and Fletch has draft copy and will append the presentation with it. Recommends consistency in ease of reading the document. Thanks to Mark and Jim for accepting the lead on this project.