Blind Bargains

#CSUN14 Audio: Accessible Braille Emergency Alerts from NPR


We're often impressed by the work of NPR Labs displayed at the CSUN conference in bringing radio to new and often overlooked audiences. This year at their booth, technology to provide emergency alerts to the deaf-blind via radio was being demonstrated. Maryfran Tyler, Senior Director of Enterprise Strategies and Planning for NPR, tells us more in this podcast. Blind Bargains audio coverage of CSUN 2014 is generously sponsored by the American Foundation for the Blind.

Transcript

We strive to provide an accurate transcription, though errors may occur.

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Direct from San Diego, it’s BlindBargains.com coverage of CSUN 2014. The biggest names, provocative interviews, and wall-to-wall exhibit hall coverage, brought to you by the American Foundation for the Blind.

For the latest technology news and accessibility information on cell phones, mainstream and access technology, personal medical devices, office equipment, digital audio players, and web-based and app technologies, log onto Access World, the American Foundation for the Blind’s monthly technology magazine: www.afb.org/aw.

Now, here’s J.J. Meddaugh.

J.J.: We are here at CSUN ’14 with Maryfran Tyler. She is a Senior Director of Strategic Planning for NPR, and we are back at the NPR Labs booth to look at some more cool technology, this time dealing with emergency alerts. So Maryfran, welcome to the podcast.

MT: Thank you for talking with us today.

J.J.: Last year we were looking at some really cool closed captioning and transcription services, which are being demonstrated here to my right. But you’ve gone a different direction as well, now doing some emergency alerts. Tell us a little bit about that.

MT: Yes, we are working with the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA to develop emergency alerting, and we’re currently running a pilot in five Gulf Coast states: Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas. We are taking the emergency information from FEMA and feeding it through the Public Radio Satellite network and 26 public radio stations in those states, and they are piping that information via broadcast to battery-powered radios that we are testing with 500 folks who are deaf and hard of hearing in those locations.

J.J.: Okay, so an emergency comes through, say, what, like a hurricane warning or something like that?

MT: Correct.

J.J.: Would they have to have the radio on the particular NPR or whatever public radio station? How would this all work?

MT: Here’s the cool thing. The radio we’ve developed automatically tunes into the local station, the one that has the best signal near where you are. So all you need to do is turn the device on. You don’t have to worry about fiddling with any dials.

J.J.: How does it figure that out? Through GPS?

MT: We do geolocating with the radio. And the radio is connected to a seven-inch Android application that can display, in text, the emergency information.

J.J.: So the alert comes through, and how is the alert presented?

MT: Initially, the device has flashing buttons that alert the user that there’s an emergency. And then they would be able to look at the screen. In addition, the back of the radio has ports where you could connect it to a bed shaker, in case the emergency happened in the middle of the night, or to an electronic Braille device, a refreshable Braille device.

J.J.: So you could read the alert in Braille.

MT: Correct.

J.J.: And that was part of my question. There are mobile apps – in fact, many of the cell phone providers now are just pushing through emergency alerts in your local area. So how would this compare to that, since you could use an iPhone and a Braille display…

MT: This is different, because in times of floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, oftentimes the power goes out. If the power goes out, there’s no television, and likely no internet. We are doing this via radio broadcast, and for years people have used transistor radios as their source of information.

J.J.: Their emergency backup, right.

MT: Their backup. So radio is always there, and so we just want to give people the opportunity to be able to use it in those emergency situations.

J.J.: Right, so pretty much saying your cell phone may or may not have enough power to last through a three-day power outage or something like that, and what if the local cell phone towers are down, which has happened before in disasters and things like that.

MT: Or the cell phone system could get overloaded, because so many people are using it.

J.J.: Right, or certain types of buildings and structures as well aren’t amenable to the best cell phone…

MT: Correct. And then this radio is battery-powered. It can work off that battery and last a day or two. It can also work off the power from the Android tablet.

J.J.: Okay. You’re using the tablet to display the information; is the tablet a required piece? Is that where the software is, or could you just use the radio by itself?

MT: At this point, with the demonstration we’re doing, you would need the tablet. But we are looking, based on the feedback we get from these 500 testers, what would be the optimal way of presenting the information. We went to this device because we were limited in the amount of money we had to produce a…

J.J.: Sure, it lets you develop the software on a platform that’s already known.

MT: Correct.

J.J.: The one thing that would come to mind is you would have to make sure the radio has power, and does the tablet also have to have power as well, right?

MT: Yes. But they can work off each other.

J.J.: Sure, that makes a lot of sense. Right now, you said it’s in five states and a lot of public radio stations. Is the eventual goal to make this a national standard or protocol that would be available both on public radio and through the commercial EAS broadcasts?

MT: This is separate from commercial EAS. Part of the reason FEMA was interested in using NPR and the Public Radio Satellite System is we reach 95% of the U.S. population, and we have redundancy in our network.

J.J.: As in there are multiple stations for the same area sometimes?

MT: Yes. The Public Radio Satellite System has 1700 stations across the country.

J.J.: So pretty much even any little small town.

MT: Just about anywhere anyone lives, we can get to them.

J.J.: Okay. How long is this trial going on, and what would the next steps be from here?

MT: The pilot goes through the end of May, and we’ll be reporting back to DHS and FEMA on the results. It’s our expectation that this will be very successful, and we will be working with them to see if we could expand this and make it operational across the country.

J.J.: And then obviously right now, you were able to provide the equipment; once it’s operational nationwide, would someone need to purchase a radio, or would there be a program to obtain that?

MT: The service itself would be free. We are trying to talk with radio manufacturers to find a radio that could either be battery-powered, solar-powered, or crank-powdered and would have a price point below $100 so that it would be accessible.

J.J.: Sure, and perhaps some of the manufacturers that currently do those types of radios would be interested in doing that as part of their line.

MT: Right.

J.J.: For sure. If people want to follow the progress of this project and how it’s going or perhaps get more involved later on, how can they do that?

MT: Absolutely, we would love folks to log into nprlabs.org. It’s N as in Nancy, P as in Peter, R as in Robert, Labs, l-a-b-s, .org. On the home page, there’s an area for accessibility. Click on that, and we’ll give you more information. A contact email is also available on the website. We’d love to hear from you.

J.J.: Great. Thank you so much, Maryfran, for sharing this with us.

MT: Thank you.

For more exclusive CSUN coverage, visit www.blindbargains.com, or download the Blind Bargains app for your iOS or Android device. Blind Bargains CSUN coverage is presented by the A T Guys, www.atguys.com.

This has been another Blind Bargains audio podcast. Visit BlindBargains.com for the latest deals, news, and exclusive content. This podcast may not be retransmitted, sold, or reproduced without the express written permission of A T Guys. © 2014.

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J.J. Meddaugh is an experienced technology writer and computer enthusiast. He is a graduate of Western Michigan University with a major in telecommunications management and a minor in business. When not writing for Blind Bargains, he enjoys travel, playing the keyboard, and meeting new people.


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