EAAC Survey Shows Some Problems for the Disabled Making Emergency Calls
An online survey of people with disabilities done by the FCC’s Emergency Access Advisory Committee (EAAC) found that at least some of the respondents had experienced problems calling 911 because of their handicaps. A majority wants to be able to text 911, rather than have to make a voice call. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has repeatedly emphasized the importance of giving 911 call centers the capacity to receive texts as well as voice calls.
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The FCC released the EAAC survey results last week (http://xrl.us/bk2ue8). The results are expected to be used by the committee to write a series of recommendations to the FCC in a report due later this year (CD July 11 p8).
Among the 2,229 who answered the question, 4.7 percent said the way they use to communicate is not supported by 911, 5.2 percent said the device they have does not allow them to effectively communicate with 911 operators, 2.4 percent said they tried, but an emergency dispatcher couldn’t understand what they needed, and 5.3 percent said they were afraid they wouldn’t be able to communicate with the 911 operator. On a positive note, 75 percent said they have experienced no problems calling 911.
The survey also found overwhelming support for giving the public the ability to contact 911 through some means other than a voice call. Among 2,973 who answered that question -- some with multiple selections -- 48.1 percent would use text, 35.1 percent video, 23.4 percent speech and artificial speech, and 31.6 percent selected voice, video and text together.
Among those who want to send a text message to 911, 10.8 percent want to be able to use TTY, 45.1 percent would use SMS, 31.1 percent would opt for Instant Messaging and 45.7 percent said they “would like to be able to use real-time text, where the 911 center reads the characters a caller types as soon as the person types them and the caller sees the characters that the 911 dispatcher types back as soon as they type them.” Some respondents chose multiple options.
Asked how they had contacted 911 in the past, among the 2,936 who responded, 20.3 percent used a wireline phone, 17.8 percent used a cellphone, 0.9 percent used a captioned phone, 1.6 percent used an amplified phone, 3.4 percent used TTY, 10.8 percent used video relay service and 1.3 percent used Internet relay service. But 55.6 percent said they had not called 911 in the last 2 years.