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Accessibility of Emergency Alert System (EAS) and the Commercial Mobile Alert Systems (CMAS)
Accessibility of Emergency Alert System (EAS) and the Commercial Mobile Alert Systems (CMAS)
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by fredy
Thursday 10:50
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Patrick Weikle (AT&T) Answers Question from the Audience: “It happens that ‘Vine’ is a Windows based application; will it be developed for MAC OSX and Linux?”
Question was regarding his presentation on the "Industry Efforts in Accessible Wireless Emergency Alerts" panel.
A: “Our Vine Beta is in fact a Windows application. We’ve received tons of feedback during the Beta process stating that Vine must be broadly available to any/all platforms. We have indeed incorporated this feedback and will include Vine access for Mac OSX, Linux, and others.”
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by frenssis
November 30. 2009
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David Ross (Atlanta VA Medical Center) Answers Questions from the Audience
Questions regarding his presentation on his original research "Cell Phone Accessibility Evaluation Study for Persons with Visual Impairments" presented on the panel "Human Factors: the end-user experience"
Q:“Have you considered that your proposed prototype should be track-able and locate-able in case of emergency and that there should be a national monitoring and response center?"
A: "Yes, for multiple reasons we desire our prototype to be track-able and locate-able. We are currently disappointed with the ability of GPS to provide reliable and accurate "track-ability" in the Atlanta Area, especially in the summer when the air is laden with humidity and/or heavily laden clouds are overhead, not to mention thunderstorm and conditions of heavy rainfall that are tantamount to an emergency for persons who are blind. In fact, I would like to ask anyone who has been testing tracking systems under such conditions to please let me know your results. I can be reached via email at ross0128@bellsouth.net"
Q: “How can we get a list of all the phones tested by the VA?”
A: "Please email me at: ross0128@bellsouth.net. I will gladly send you our current list of phones that have been/are being evaluated."
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by fredy
Saturday 01:25
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Thad Starner (Wireless RERC) Answers Questions from the Audience
Questions regarding his development project “Deaf 911-Direct Mobile Telephone 911 Emergency Access for the Deaf” presented on the panel “Applications: the alert and beyond”
Q: “Please elaborate on plans to work with the FCC.”
A: “Currently, we are providing demonstrations and information to the FCC as requested. We are trying to work with manufacturers and service providers to create more robust versions of the software and hope that they will take the lead on promoting the concept with the FCC (for reasons of self interest on creating cost-effective accommodations)”
Q: “How do you see the different operating systems and model specifications of cell phones impeding the roll-out of this software?”
A: “The software tricks we are using are pretty straightforward (currently) and should be applicable to most systems. We hope that once one system is shown to work with high accuracy, the manufacturers will be able to create similar systems pretty quickly for any modern smart phone.”
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by fredy
February 23. 2010
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Rich Rarey (NPR Labs) Answers Question from the Audience: “How can PBS/NPR communicate at a real local level like a town or even a neighborhood-not just a region or a big metropolitan area like Las Vegas or Atlanta?”
An Answer:
I can answer for the NPR activities; a new project, The Station Action For Emergency Readiness, or "SAFER", has been created to help public broadcasters serve their communities when disaster strikes. The project is a joint effort of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters (NFCB), National Public Radio (NPR) the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), and the Integrated Media Association.
The published press release describing the project says, in part,
SAFER will develop customizable plans to help stations stay on-the-air, online and in touch with their audiences through mobile devices during crises. An online manual will guide stations in developing or improving their business continuity plans. A companion crisis communications plan will show stations how to reliably deliver critical life-saving information to listeners in emergency situations. The project will also distribute online tools and widgets that stations can embed into their own websites so the public can get emergency information on their mobile devices as well as online and on-air. Webinars and workshops will be offered featuring experts who can assist stations with implementation of a response program.
In a joint note to NPR Member Stations representatives, Ginny Berson (VP and Director, Federation Services, National Federation of Community Broadcasters) and Gemma Hooley (Station Relations Manager, National Public Radio) indicated that the SAFER working group will bepublishing the manual and online tools by the end of March 2010.
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by frenssis
November 30. 2009
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Donna Platt (NENA) Answers Question from the Audience: “As many calls to a 911 center from Deaf individuals are treated as hang-up calls, are you aware of any best practices nationwide to insure equal access and proper handling of a TTY call to a 911 cen
Each 9-1-1 agency has its own Standard Operation Procedures (SOP). Each call taker is to follow this SOP for hang-up calls regardless if the caller is using voice or TTY. It is common practice for call takers to call back on hang-up calls – if there is no response, most of the time they would inform police. Police stations have their own SOPs on how they handle these types of calls.
Call takers should be aware that they are to respond in TTY whenever it is silence, open line or the sound of beeping sounds is heard. Even though voice is not heard, call takers are to challenge such calls as a potential TTY call.
If TTY calls are hang-up, it is most likely that call takers may not be trained or may be busy with high volume of calls. In that case, this area needs to be evaluated and also policy for processing hang-up calls needs to be reviewed.
The document on TTY handling calls can be found in NENA website http://www.nena.org/standards/operations/tty-training-standard. Currently this document is being revised by both NENA and APCO (Association of Public Safety Communication Officials). As soon as it is completed, it will be posted in the website. Please check NENA and APCO websites.
In addition, there are several programs called Phone Pal and TTY Pass. The TTY Pass program is a testing program that enable call takers to handle TTY calls as properly, promptly, and reliably as voice calls. Please visit this site, http://www.nena.org/tty-pass for additional information. The Phone Pal program involves people from community to test call on TTY and other aspects as part of routine testing to strengthen the communication skills of call takers and to ensure that their TTYs are working properly. This information can be found in this website http://www.nena.org/standards/operations/tty-phone-pal-program.
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by frenssis
November 30. 2009
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Donna Platt (NENA) answers audience question: “Can you elaborate on NG-911? When can we expect this technology and are there implementation concerns?”
Due to rapidly changing technology, this current 9-1-1 system is not compatible to receive calls and dates from these current technologies. Presently the E9-1-1 system which is called as Enhanced 9-1-1, operates on analog system. It is needed to be updated with the internet protocol system in order to merge with those current technologies.
The current 9-1-1 system is beginning to transition to Next Generation 9-1-1, which is being designed to accept calls from almost any device through advanced Internet Protocol-based networks, including text, images, and video messages in addition to voice calls. That includes sharing networks, bandwidth and data with other emergency entities as well as transferring calls and backing up among and between PSAPs and other authorized emergency organizations without geographic restrictions.
NG9-1-1 is a huge & complicated project because the NG9-1-1 includes many different components; it would require teamwork and cooperation from people involved in various fields to contribute to this development to make the NG9-1-1 a reality.
People who are involved in the NG9-1-1 development are:
• General public – emergency callers
• 9-1-1 Authorities/State 9-1-1 agencies
• Local PSAPs and other emergency response agencies
• Public safety and industry organizations – APCO, NENA, CTIA
• Local/State/Federal Governments
• Standards Development Organizations
• 9-1-1 System Service Providers
• Originating Service Providers and national call centers (telematics, TRS, VRS, other N11s)
• Vendors, Equipment Manufacturers and distributors
Also there are concerns that need to be addressed to meet the needs of all callers, including technical issues, policy, training development, and standard operating procedures in order to process emergency calls. With teamwork effort from people with various skills and knowledge contributing to this essential NG9-1-1 project, the vision of NG9-1-1 will become a reality.
For the implementation of NG 9-1-1, there will be several phases for every PSAP to process the transition from analog to internet protocol systems in this country based on funding availability. There is no time frame for this country to complete the transition. The funding is needed for updating system, running internet system, database maintenance, call taker training, staff time and others. Support from 9-1-1 personnel, government (city, county, and state) officials and stakeholders within local and/or state are needed in order to make NG9-1-1 happen.
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