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2nd Annual Access Alerts Advisory Board Meeting Presentation
February 23, 2006
Text Version of PowerPoint presentation

Marcia Brooks, Project Director
WGBH National Center for Accessible Media
617 300-3431
marcia_brooks@wgbh.org

Agenda


Slide 1
Efforts to Date

  • Formed Advisory Board
  • Formed Working Group
    • Includes emergency management personnel, providers of notification services and equipment, and others
    • Meets monthly via phone conference

Slide 2
Efforts to Date - Working Group, continued:

  • Established working group "wiki" (collaborative editing environment)
  • Varied resources
  • White papers, project documents in progress, social science research
  • Concept map, to facilitate gap analysis

Slide 3
Image of Concept Map

Slide 4
Efforts to Date - Draft information requirements suggest how a warning message should integrate the relevant needs of people with sensory disabilities within:

  • Database management and information processing
  • Alert distribution systems
  • Receiver equipment

Slide 5
Efforts to Date - Information requirements drawn from existing authoritative works:

  • National Science and Technology Council "Red Book" report on "Effective Disaster Warnings"
  • OASIS Emergency Management Technical Committee warning format requirements
  • World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

Slide 6
Efforts to Date - Established Public Access Repository

  • Summary documents of user needs
  • Design requirements for accessible products and services
  • Usability research
  • Subject-related news articles and conference announcements

Slide 7
Efforts to Date - Outreach

  • Presented overview of e-mail alert services at "Accessible Emergency Notification and Communication State of the Science" conference at Gallaudet
  • Submitted paper for Third Annual International Meeting of Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management at New Jersey Institute of Technology

Slide 8
Efforts to Date

  • Establishing contacts at Massachusetts state agencies, to develop state model for notification
  • Developing partner relationships to conduct testing and develop demonstration models

Slide 9
Efforts to Date

Just completed consumer focus groups (Mary Watkins)

With the RERC on Telecommunications Access, filed comments to the FCC regarding the Emergency Alert System (Gerry Field)

Slide 10
What's Ahead

  • Refine use cases, information requirements
  • Conduct usability testing
  • Develop demonstration model
  • Conduct test implementations and evaluations of use cases in products and services
  • Continue development of information repository

Project concludes September 30, 2007

Slide 11
Focus Groups Update

Focus Groups were convened to solicit direct input from the community:

  • How emergency messages are received
  • The content and usefulness of messages
  • Satisfaction and/or frustration with above
  • Ideal delivery mechanisms and message content

Slide 12
Focus Groups

Tech Savvy and Non-Tech Savvy Consumers:

  • Hard-of-Hearing and Late-deafened Consumers(NVRC)
  • Deaf and Hard of Hearing Consumers (TDI)
  • Blind and Visually Impaired Consumers (AFB)
  • Deaf-Blind consumers (Helen Keller National Ctr)

Slide 13
Focus Groups

Hard-of-Hearing and Late-deafened Consumers Receive Emergency Information via:

  • Television
  • Radio (if residual hearing)
  • E-mail or news Web sites (text only as online video not captioned)
  • Personal devices such as pagers, cell phones, "Blackberries"/PDAs
  • From family, neighbors, strangers

Slide 14
Focus Groups

Tech Savvy Hard-of-Hearing and Late-deafened Consumers Concerns:

  • Broadcast weather alerts utilize Doppler/area maps that make pinpointing locations difficult without benefit of audio
  • Power outages, extreme vulnerability in the dark
  • Relevance of emergency messages via e-mail diluted by less than vital information ("high wind" warnings)
  • Public address (PA) systems in public spaces not useful (hearing aids can block/distort background noise)

Slide 15
Focus Groups

Hard-of-Hearing and Late-deafened Consumers' Wish List:

  • Text displays in public buildings
  • Hearing aid coupled with a PA system to transmit emergency messages directly (Bluetooth)
  • Portable speech to text device
  • GPS in cell phone with local emergency mgmt agency reachable
  • Radio text alerts
  • Captioned Internet video, easy to activate, delivered in real time
  • Device to wake you, complete with external power supply

Slide 16
Focus Groups

Ideal messages for Deaf, Hard-of-Hearing and Late-deafened Consumers:

  • Notification and what to do
  • URL for more information
  • Develop consistency: keywords, order of info
  • Offer hierarchy of notification options/scenarios
  • Offer variety of message detail based on device text display (address problem of truncated text)

Slide 17
Focus Groups

Ideal messages for Deaf Consumers:

  • Establish color codes and keywords for people who don't have great English skills (broadcast or text msgs)
  • Incorporation of sign language interpreters for emergency newscasts or e-mailed alerts

Slide 18
Focus Groups

Non Tech Savvy Hard-of-Hearing and Late-deafened Consumers Ideal Messages:

  • Messages delivered via existing public technology vs. personal devices
  • Method of capturing TV captioning text if missed or if scrolling too fast
  • Utilize LED signs (Amber Alerts system) on highways, display alerts in cars
  • TV station/channel with text information on full screen
  • Neighborhood watch program (though privacy/safety concern)
  • Programs to have police/fire personnel notify household

Slide 19
Focus Groups

Blind and Visually Impaired Consumers Receive Emergency Information/Notification via:

  • Radio
  • Television (increasingly)
  • Ham Radio (fast, direct)
  • Satellite radio
  • Weather radios that turn on during emergencies
  • Automated calls by local emergency agencies
  • E-mail alerts from local tv stations
  • Sirens if in a small or rural community
  • Family, friends, neighbors (secondary source, not a preferred primary source)

Slide 20
Focus Groups

Blind and Visually Impaired Consumers Expressed These Concerns:

  • Televised text scrolls and graphics cater to sighted audience
  • TV reporters that say "over here" and "in the red area"
  • Diminishing number of locally owned and operated radio stations (hence availability and reliability of local alerts)
  • Stations (tv and radio) that cover wide areas and therefore don't provide enough specifics during weather events
  • Training of public officials needed, especially around importance of guide dogs (not a pet)

Slide 21
Focus Groups

Suggestions from Blind and Visually Impaired Consumers:

  • Improve what currently exists, take what "is" and make it more accessible
  • Broadcast audio warnings in additional languages
  • Use beepers to alert users to emergency situation to seek further info
  • 800 number for emergency info in your area
  • Phone options preferable to instant messaging
  • Dissemination software that can send messages via more than one type of media/device
  • Stick with low tech options to maximize accessibility and penetration

Slide 22
Focus Groups

Suggestions on Message Content from Blind and Visually Impaired Consumers:

  • Relatively few complaints on quality of warning notification now
  • EAS warnings taken seriously, capture attention, build on this with tones on other devices
  • Improve broadcast weather reports by reducing vague pointing and "over here/there"
  • Concern comes with "what do I do now" post evacuation (transportation, shelters, etc. when away from home and tv/radio)

Suggestion beyond current project: Engage local communities of blind and visually impaired consumers and first responders similar to TDI's CEPIN project


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