U.S. Government Requires More Access to Emergency Information

The Federal Communications Commission has adopted rules to require broadcasters, cable operators, and other multichannel video programming distributors to make local emergency information that they provide to viewers accessible to persons with hearing disabilities. The FCC concluded that critical aural information that affects the safety of viewers must be made available to persons with hearing disabilities. This action further implements Section 713 of the Communications Act, added by the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Pursuant to Section 713, the Commission previously adopted rules and implementation schedules to ensure that video programming is accessible via closed captioning to persons with hearing disabilities. Because the closed captioning requirement will be phased in over a number of years, today's action ensures that people with hearing disabilities will receive critical emergency information in an accessible format, even before the phase-in of closed captioning is complete.

In a Second Report and Order adopted April 13, the Commission said that emergency information not provided through closed captioning must be provided through some other method of visual presentation, such as open captioning, crawls or scrolls. These rules will apply regardless of whether the provision of information regarding an emergency occurs during a regularly scheduled newscast, an unscheduled break during regular programming, as part of continuing coverage of a situation, or in any other fashion.
 

Definition of emergency information

The FCC defined emergency information as:

•  information about a current emergency that is intended to further the protection of life, health, safety, and property
•  i.e., critical details regarding the emergency and how to respond to that emergency

• specific details regarding the areas that will be affected by the emergency
• evacuation orders, detailed descriptions of areas to be evacuated, specific evacuation routes
• approved shelters or the way to take shelter in one's home, instructions on how to secure personal property, road closures, and how to obtain relief assistance