In the post, Nuclear Alert Sirens Fall Short For The Deaf And Hard Of Hearing,” Greg Sunshine points out that in the event of a radiological emergency, people who live within a 10-mile radius of nuclear power plants will hear a system of sirens sound the alert. However, for their deaf and hard of hearing neighbors, the sound of the sirens alone provides no warning whatsoever. He explains:

According to Nuclear Regulatory Commission (”NRC”) regulations, each nuclear power plant must have an emergency notifications system for its surrounding 10-mile “emergency planning zone.” The purpose of the sirens is to let residents know that some type of emergency has occurred, and to tune to their television or radio for specific Emergency Alert System (”EAS”) instructions (the same EAS that interrupts late night television for a weekly test).

Although the Americans with Disabilities Act requires television EAS messages to include closed captioning for the deaf and hard of hearing, without an alternative to the sirens, residents who cannot hear the sirens will not know to check their television in the first place. This creates a significant notification problem for radiological emergencies when getting quick emergency information could save lives.

Although sirens provide no notice to the almost 1,000,000 Americans who are functionally deaf, the NRC inspection manual indicates that sirens are an acceptable means of notifying the populace. In fact, NRC Inspection Procedure 71114.02 – which provides the guidelines for inspecting plants’ alert and notification system – indicates that sirens are the primary means of notification. According to the manual, if a plant’s siren system is adequate, the plant is considered to have met the “notice to the populace” requirement, regardless of how many deaf or hard of hearing residents would receive no such notice.

Though Sunshine points out that there are steps deaf and hard of hearing citizens can take to overcome the notification gap:

First, deaf and hard of hearing residents should call their sheriff’s office to ensure that the computer aided dispatch system has them listed as residents with difficulty hearing. Doing so may allow the residents to receive notice from the sheriff’s office if it implements route alerting (where officers drive a specific route disseminating information via loudspeaker), and would also ensure that a telecommunications device for the deaf (known as a TDD or a TTY) is used for phone conversations.

Residents should also determine whether their county, or a neighboring county, uses some type of text alert system to notify residents via text message of possible local emergencies (most often weather-related). If the county does not have a text alert system, residents should purchase a special needs weather radio. Conveniently, both the text alert and weather radios are also tied to the EAS. Therefore, if the EAS begins to notify residents of a radiological emergency at a nearby nuclear power plant, it is likely that a text alert system would be used to notify those who have enrolled in the service. If EAS is activated, the weather radios will provide notice to residents through means viable to the deaf or hard of hearing, such as “visual and vibrating alarms and simple text readouts.”

People with difficulty hearing should also determine if their county has a reverse 911 system in place, and if so, enroll in it. Reverse 911 acts as an automated calling service that calls residents entered into its database and plays a prerecorded message with emergency instructions. If such a system calls a deaf or hard of hearing resident, that resident’s TDD would translate the message into text.

Finally, FEMA advises people who are deaf or hard of hearing to “plan ahead for someone to convey essential emergency information to you if you are unable to use the TV or radio.” While this and the aforementioned efforts may not provide the same immediate notice as the sirens, they are better than no notice at all.

Although deaf and hard of hearing residents can take steps to mitigate this notification gap, the difficult reality remains that this group of citizens faces an ongoing safety disadvantage until the system is modified.

The video urges emergency managers to continue to better integrate the disabled into preparedness planning and for the disabled community to continue to both advocate their interests with emergency managers as well as prepare themselves for emergencies.

In the CNN.com piece, Fugate discusses the agency’s efforts in this area:

For years, our nation’s emergency management community simply has not done a good enough job planning for and meeting the needs of people with disabilities…

The root of the problem lies here: Historically the U.S. emergency management field has treated people with disabilities as a separate population, rather than as part of the larger community. This limited approach not only directly violates the intent of the ADA, but ties up personnel and resources when a disaster strikes. It jeopardizes everyone’s safety.

Fugate writes that FEMA and the emergency management community is making progress:

In February, we established the Office of Disability Integration and Coordination, the first office in FEMA’s history dedicated to ensuring that the needs of people with disabilities are factored into all operations.

As a result, we are already taking important steps to better support all members of our emergency management team — state and local officials, nonprofit organizations, volunteer groups and the private sector — in helping people with disabilities before, during and after a disaster.

We are working with disability advocates to incorporate the needs of people with disabilities into emergency communications and public alert systems, evacuations, transportation and medical equipment supply plans.

Preplanning for evacuations, for example, must include accessible transportation for people using wheelchairs and information that is easy to act on for people who are deaf or blind, or people who have cognitive or intellectual disabilities.

We are improving our disaster housing strategies to ensure that people with disabilities have access to general shelters and temporary housing that meet their needs and to ease their transitions back into the community. Shelters must be able to keep families intact during an emergency, instead of turning away members of a family because of a disability…

This is just the beginning of an effort that will be challenging and take a lot of hard work. This anniversary is an opportunity to reflect on how far our nation has come since the Americans with Disabilities Act was first signed into law — and to take an honest look at where we go from here. At FEMA, that means continuing to learn from the mistakes of the past to better protect and serve the entire community. It’s not only the law — it’s the right thing to do.

The full article can be found here.

“Attended by well over a hundred persons from the public and private sectors, the two-day workshop was an eye-opening experience that showed the challenges, frustrations and enormous gaps that still remain in this country when it comes to addressing the needs of persons with disabilities and special needs… [I] left the two-day experience moved but extremely frustrated by what I learned…nearly 20 years after the passage of the Americans with Disability Act, we remain a nation woefully unengaged and not pro-active enough in providing some of our most vulnerable citizens with the basic essentials they need to respond to emergencies – the essentials a majority of Americans take for granted.”

Cooper also lays out some of the report findings he finds particularly disturbing, including:

• Only the State of Texas provides a 24-7, 365 means (that is fully compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act) of notifying deaf and hearing impaired persons of approaching dangers.

• When it comes to emergency preparedness exercises, persons with disabilities and special needs are often forgotten about or not included. As a result, when a real emergency occurs, some (certainly not all) first responders and building evacuation personnel don’t know what to do with those who might need extra assistance.

Despite his frustration with the current situation, Cooper does correctly note the good work of disabled advocates and others in emergency preparedness field. (In fact, I would argue that disabled community has been a model how to improve citizen preparedness for its constituency. Unfortunately, the general public does not have anyone representing its interests in this area with such focus.)

“By offering this criticism, I do not mean to undercut or denigrate the tremendous leadership and progress that has been made by many emergency managers and first responders in the public and private sectors on these issues. Their efforts are reason for praise and recognition, but much more has to be done to improve accessibility for and inclusion of the disabled and special needs populations in emergency preparedness and response efforts.”

To listen to the report or watch it in American Sign Language click here,  or view the first part on YouTube below:

A video (above) with a woman reading the first part of the “Emergency Preparedness for Persons with Disabilities and Special Needs” Report from the American National Standards Institute’s Homeland Security Standards Panel in American Sign Language.