Twenty First Century Communications News

A Breakthrough in Rapid Emergency Alerts for the Hearing Impaired

COLUMBUS, Ohio, July 25 PRNewswire — A series of tests by Twenty First Century Communications (TFCC) has confirmed that they are the first and only major hosted (Software as a Service, or SaaS) notification vendor to provide true TDD/TTY delivery of emergency notification and messages without pre-registration.

Twenty First Century's Universal Communications System is unique in that it can both detect TTY machines and deliver TTY messages, without the need of a relay operator.

This quantum leap in safety and security enables hearing impaired populations — people who are deaf, deaf-blind, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability — to be treated equally and to receive alerts at the same time as the general public. This is critical in the event of public safety threats like wildfires, when residents have only 15 minutes to evacuate their homes.

TFCC engineers worked with Richard Ray, Deaf Services Coordinator of the Los Angeles Department on Disability, Disability Access and Services, and Donna Platt of the Hearing, Speech and Deafness Center. Twenty First Century modified its software and procedures behind its Universal Communications System (UCS), which has succeeded in reaching out to landline TTY users.

Richard Ray stated, "I applaud TFCC for the effort in making mass notification systems to enable municipalities to initiate outbound emergency calls to a designated group of land-line telephone subscribers including TTY users, instantly alerting those in a pre-determined geographical area of a hazardous situation.

"These tests are significant because they ensure that TFCC systems such as AlertSanDiego are functioning properly to deliver warning messages to land-line TTY users in order to help save lives. Everyone, both TTY users and voice users, can receive messages at the same time. Thus it reduces time delay for emergency responders in sending out messages to specific populations."

About Americans with Disabilities

To learn more about needs of the hearing impaired populations, visit the Americans with Disabilities Act Information and Technical Assistance website at www.ada.gov or the Disability Preparedness Resource Center at www.disabilitypreparedness.gov .

Ellen Grevey Director of Corporate Communications 614-442-1215 ext. 262 ellen.grevey@tfcci.com

SOURCE Twenty First Century Communications

Send this news item to a friend.

Print This Page