Time to Adopt SMS as Temporary Fix for Texting to 911, Deaf Advocates Say
The FCC’s Emergency Access Advisory Committee turned back a move for the group to approve a resolution calling on the FCC to adopt short message service (SMS) as a temporary solution for texting to 911, while various stakeholders develop a long-term fix. The motion came from Sheri Farinha, representing the Norcal Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing on the EAAC. The EAAC ultimately approved a resolution expressing general support for adoption of SMS, as a minimum standard, as well as “other technologies as appropriate, with a three-digit short code 911,” as an interim fix. A vote on the resolution came after a sometimes tense discussion, lasting almost an hour.
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Farinha said deciding on an interim solution has taken much too long. “We have to start with a strong foundation,” she said. “We can’t afford to waste time. Every second counts.” At the last EAAC meeting, Farinha slammed industry participants for distancing themselves from last year’s report on the future of emergency communications for people with disabilities (CD Feb 13 p4).
An EAAC subcommittee is already looking at an interim solution for texting to 911, other members said. Industry members largely objected to the initial resolution, saying the better course would be to wait for the working group to compete its work. “I would warn against limiting it to just SMS,” said Mark Fletcher of Avaya Labs. “There are other things such as real-time text.” CTIA agrees the need is urgent, said Matt Gerst, representing the association. “But we need to discuss these very difficult questions in the subcommittee,” he said. CTIA and several wireless carriers told the FCC in February that SMS won’t work even as a short-term solution (CD Feb 13 p8).
Some areas of the U.S. are already moving to next-generation 911 without using SMS, said Cheryl King, the FCC staffer coordinating the EAAC’s work. “Their NG911 might be real-time text.” The EAAC shouldn’t suggest “you have to do SMS and then move on,” she said. Wednesday and Thursday, the FCC sponsored an EAAC showcase at commission headquarters where vendors demonstrated various technologies for sending texts to 911 call centers.
Farinha fired back at industry members of the EAAC. “I think it’s funny that there are people who have access to 911 who are making comments and controlling the bent of the discussion here,” she said. “That just needs to be said very clearly. It feels discriminatory and it kind of disgusts me.” Other deaf advocates supported Farinha’s proposal. Donna Platt, representing the Hearing, Speech & Deafness Center, noted that during the Virginia Tech massacre five years ago, 200 people tried to text 911 as they hid from the shooter. “When I think about the time that has passed since then, it doesn’t seem as if anything has been done,” she said. “Why is it? Why are we waiting? What are we waiting for? What is the delay?”