Transcript Document

E-Mail Alerts: What’s Available
Accessible Emergency Notification
and Communication: State of the
Science Conference
Gallaudet University
November 2, 2005
The WGBH Media Access Group
• The Caption Center (est. 1972)
– Primary audience: people who are deaf or
hard of hearing
• Descriptive Video Service (est. 1990)
– Primary audience: people who are blind or
visually impaired
• National Center for Accessible Media (est.
1993)
– Research and development facility
The WGBH National Center for
Accessible Media
Research and development facility
• Supports national policy decisions
• Develops technical solutions
• Conducts research
• Promotes advocacy via outreach
Access to Emergency Alerts for People
with Disabilities
• Funded by U.S. Department of Commerce
Technology Opportunities Program (TOP)
• Just concluded first year of three year grant:
– Formed Advisory Board and Working Group
– Developed consumer use case scenarios
– Developed preliminary information model
– Developed conceptual model to facilitate gap
analysis
– Built information repository
Access to Emergency Alerts for People
with Disabilities
Currently:
• Planning consumer focus groups
• Developing partner relationships to conduct
testing and develop demonstration models
• Establishing contacts at Massachusetts
agencies, to develop state model for
notification
• Conducting outreach
Access to Emergency Alerts for People
with Disabilities
• What’s Ahead
– Refine use cases, information model
– Conduct usability testing
– Develop demonstration model
– Conduct test implementations and evaluations of
use cases in products and services
– Continue development of information repository
– Convene Advisory Board annually
Text Alert Messaging Technologies
• Two basic technologies to deliver services:
– Short Message System (SMS)
– Conventional E-Mail
– Most emergency alert systems can accommodate
both
- User profile can store both cell phone and email
contacts
Text Alert Messaging: SMS
• Commonly available on wide range of personal
mobile devices
• Designed for display on small screens of cell phones
and pagers
• Approx. 140 character limit per message
• Segmented (multiple part) messages are possible
• Uses ‘store-and-forward’ distribution (auto redial)
– Automatically resends message if recipient device
is turned off or out of range
Text Alert Messaging:
Conventional E-Mail
• “Traditional” e-mail -- SMTP (Simple Mail
Transfer Protocol)
• Can accommodate longer text messages with
enclosures
– Still, messages should conform to practical
limits
• Used by popular RIM, Blackberry and
Sidekick devices
E-mail and Text Messaging
Service Offerings
• Many various services developed over past few years
(TV stations gain Internet presence)
– Sports, stocks, school closings
– Weather, traffic, emergencies
• Most available on free subscription basis, requiring
registration of e-mail or cell phone number
– Often multiple addresses/numbers can be entered
in a user profile
– Ability to select type of messages received, often
by region
E-Mail Notification Services
• Wide choice available around the country, offered by:
– Local tv stations & newspapers
– Local, regional & state governments
– Private ad-sponsored and fee-based services
– Most are free, and provide some menu of choices
for types of alerts and desired geographical areas
– Additional services are designed for specific
audiences, i.e. company employees, parent
organizations, etc.
Text Alert Messaging - Features and
Needs
• Text-based services can be difficult to use for
individuals:
– Without strong reading/writing skills
– For whom English is a second language
• Multiple messages can create clutter, “cry-wolf”
syndrome
• Need to provide confidence in message authority
• Verbose messages in a terse environment
– Often message structure is complicated and
dense
Text Alert Messaging - Features &
Needs
“Free” can have a cost:
• Most sites require minimal personal info, but read the
privacy notices to know how your information will be
used
• We have no evidence that spam results
• If subscription site provides marketing services for a
sponsor, they should provide an “opt-out”
• Cost per message often free, but service provider
may charge for each message
Examples of Services
• The Emergency Email & Wireless
Network
• Local weather (KIRO)
• RPIN (Washington State)
• Local Emergency (Arlington County, VA)
• Paid subscription: sendwordnow.com
Sample Services: Emergency Email.org
• Free, ad supported
• Provides notification of local, regional,
national and international emergencies
• Distributes via Internet, e-mail, cell phones,
pagers and fax
• Site includes links for most states, counties
and local areas
Sample Services: Emergency Email.org
• Provides info from a wide assortment of sources:
– Emergency management
– Disaster relief
– Health and public safety organizations
– Weather Services
– Schools
– Non-profit and government agencies
• Provides messaging system products and services to
corporate, government and agency clients
Sample Services: Regional Public
Information Network (RPIN)
• Free service to Central Puget Sound area in
Washington State
• Collects info on street and highway closures, major
transit disruptions, weather
• Provides updates on agencies’ responses
• Public can sign up to receive e-mail alerts and pager
headlines from RPIN partners, including emergency
preparedness tips
• Users can select types of alerts by geographic area
• Users can subscribe to multiple receipt devices
Sample Services: KIRO (Seattle)
• Good example of local TV station free e-mail alert
subscription service
• Site is built and managed for KIRO by Internet
Broadcasting
– Provides Web site templates and hosted services
for 70 TV news and information sites across U.S.
• Consumers can choose geographic location
• Consumers can select delivery to pager or cellphone
Sample Message: KIRO
From: KIROTV.com Newsroom [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, October 01, 2004 12:20 PM
To: Firstname Lastname
Subject: BREAKING NEWS: Steam Eruption Seen At Mount St.
Helens
Steam Eruption Begins At Mount St. Helens
BREAKING NEWS: Mount St. Helens is erupting. Steam is
shooting from the crater.
MORE DETAILS:
<http://treets.kirotv.com/svc/lnk.cfm?l=42286434&t=1>
Sample Services: Arlington County, VA
• E-mail alert notification service for residents and
businesses in Arlington County
• Alerts now available via XM Radio ©
• Users subscribe through a free account with ROAM
Secure Alert Network
• ROAM Secure operates service for Arlington County
and other communities in Washington DC metro area
• Users can choose wide variety of messages
Sample Services: sendwordnow.com
• Paid service for alerting by SMS, email and voice for
corporate and government clients
• Allows secure two-way communication in time-critical
situations
• Using such a service, a company can set up
message distribution to potentially thousands of
users
• Automated management and tracking features:
– Verify message delivery, log responses, schedule
repeat messages
End-User Observations
Thanks to Donna Platt
Manager
Washington State 9-1-1/TTY Education Program
Department of Education
Hearing, Speech and Deafness Center (HSDC)
Seattle, WA
End-User Observations:
EmergencyEmail.org
• Messages usually cut in half when sent to pager (but
were full on e-mail)
• Too many messages on weather in Cascades
mountains, even though signed up for King County
Alerts
• Caused some people to unsubscribe
• Recently received messages via computer, not pager
-- but didn’t change preferences
End-User Observations: Severe Weather
Alert KOMO-TV (Seattle)
• Severe Weather Alert KOMO-TV
– Short, concise, one-sentence messages
– Messages stopped coming last Spring
without explanation
– Yet, Web site notes no discontinuation of
service
End-User Observations: Severe Weather
Alert KIRO-TV (Seattle)
• Severe Weather Alert KIRO-TV
– Most messages similar to emergencyemail.org,
but shown in full
• Breaking News KIRO TV
– From Web site, click on “Sign up for E- News”
– Amber Alerts and National Threat Levels
announced through this service
– Clicking link from pager, it takes time to find the
right article and click on it again
End-User Observations: RPIN
• For several years, no messages were shown
on Sidekick pager (but were received via
Blackberry pager)
• Messages do show via e-mail
• More recently, messages now received on
Sidekick
• Clicking on link shows message within screen
End-User Observations: Seattle/King
County Public Health
• Messages received to pager and e-mail
• Clicking on link works with computer,
– But with pager full page is not shown within
screen
– One side of Web site was shown
Subscription Sites Accessibility
• Sign up should be:
– Universally accessible
– Properly formatted
– Easy to use
• Display preferences could be part of sign-up
– for future subscription management and
delivery of alerts
• Sign-up could adjust itself when user finishes
accessibility prefs, so rest of process is easier
Subscription Sites -- Sample
Accessibility Overview
• All need improvement -- far from compliant
with Section 508:
– Weather.com desktop weather application
download page
– www.thebostonchannel.com/weather/index
.html
– www.weather.com/weather/my
Text Alert Messaging - What’s
the Future
• Accessibility
• Basic 508 and 255 compliance issues
• Compatability, interoperability with assistive
technologies
• Text-to-speech alternatives needed
• Peer-to-peer signing
• Push (subscription), pull (surfing) and two-way
(interactive) services
Text Alert Messaging - What’s
the Future
• Digital Broadcasting
– Potential for ad-hoc channels and services
– HDRadio has text display capabilities
– Potential text-to-speech and speech-to-text
applications
– Podcasting
ncam.wgbh.org/alerts
incident.com/access
Marcia Brooks
[email protected]