March 7, 2007
The Honorable Joseph Lieberman, Chair
US Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee
Re.: Emergency Preparedness & Persons with Disabilities
Dear Mr. Chair:
I am writing on behalf of the National Council for Support of Disabilities (NCSD). I serve as its legal chair and spokesperson. Please refer to http://www.ncsd.org. NCSD constitutes a cross-disability policy Section 501c3 non-profit with some 400 members and its purpose is to increase the civil rights and equal opportunity to persons with disabilities. NCSD encourages that, as the committee reviews approaches to implementing the recommendations of the 911 Commission, it consider any necessary legislative solutions to assuring greater access to critical information for all persons with disabilities during disasters, but particularly, as applies to the present inability of sight impaired individuals to access screen-scrolls on television to emergency notifications.
Your committee may have received a communication from one advocacy organization supporting a voluntary registration for people with disabilities in order that first responders can search for them effectively during a disaster. NCSD does not support any such registration because such registrations have proven to be ineffective and because this is best rendered to agency action or to state legislation. However, the more important issue of access to radio and television broadcasts must be addressed. NCSD supports any federal legislative tools that may be necessary to provide the Federal Communications Commission with the authority to mandate that all emergency notifications broadcasted via television are accessible to persons with sight and hearing impairments.
People with disabilities require access to timely information when an emergency or weather warning occurs. People with disabilities also desire ready access to local traffic and weather alerts, school closings and other community-based information. However, radio and television broadcasts, cable television news programs and updates do not consistently serve the needs of the 28 million people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing, or the needs of the 11 million people who are blind or have low vision. When an emergency combines with a loss of electric power, the problem worsens, as secondary sources of information are not useable by people with sensory disabilities. The need for an accessible, consistent, reliable and redundant multi-platform emergency notification system that effectively serves people with disabilities is recognized by both the FCC and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The FCC has stated in various Report and Orders that collaborative efforts are needed to provide people with disabilities with access to all components of the existing emergency communications system:
1) 911 telephone call processing and delivery and wireless call dispatch;
2) Radio and/or television and cable news and updates; and,
3) The Emergency Alert System (EAS).
NCSD is confident that there is existing technology and methods to increase access to the notification that people without disabilities readily acquire from telecommunications sources, such as the television and from cellular telephones. A cutting-edge organization located in Massachusetts is working on improving platforms, such that they will be able to accommodate accessible messages in a number of formats. It is critical that, to the extent this is a federal issue; legislative action is taken to assure access to emergency notifications. It is also critical to the extent any legislation addressing this issue is sponsored and eventually enacted that there be proper funding to enforce the mandates. Please do not hesitate to telephone me at – (410) 241-6745 if I can be of further assistance on disability related policy issues.
Sincerely,
Gary C. Norman, Esq.