EXEMPLARY PRACTICES IN EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT
Hearing Impaired Alerting System
Program Description: The Naperville Emergency Management Agency was approached by its Americans With Disabilities Committee to provide severe weather notification to residents with hearing impairments. Initially it was thought that manufacturers of alert radios (such as those used in schools and hospitals) could add a strobe light to their units. The manufacturers were not interested in doing so.
The city was already using telephone pagers to alert staff to various types of severe weather situations and decided to add hearing impaired persons to this program. The supplier of the pagers said that the city could add as many telephone numbers as they wished. The city's Social Services Division eventually brought the idea to the City Council, which approved the concept and authorized rental of 30 pagers at the city's expense to start the program.
Social Services and the city's Legal Department worked together to establish the rules of the program. Any resident age 18 or older with a hearing loss of 65 decibels or greater and with an audiogram is eligible for the program. Each applicant has to sign an agreement with the city and take a training class before receiving the pager. Each also receives a package of materials on all types of safety from the Emergency Management Agency.
The pagers provide specific four-digit codes to identify storm watches and warnings and to notify users when the 911 system is down and when it comes back up. The problem with 911 rarely occurs, but when it does, calls go to a special bypass number of the Public Safety Answering Point.
The monthly cost (per person) for each pager is $4. There have been nothing but favorable comments from users.
A paper by William Reynolds of the Naperville Emergency Management Agency, entitled "I Can Feel What You Can Hear!" was recently published in the American Society of Professional Emergency Planners Journal.
Evaluation Information: Nineteen hearing impaired persons are now in the program, with an expected total enrollment of 30 persons. All comments have been favorable.
Annual Budget: $1,440.
Sources of Funding: The city budget.
Program Type: Telephone pager to inform hearing impaired persons of severe weather and other conditions affecting their safety.
Target Population: Hearing impaired persons.
Setting: Citywide.
Project Startup Date: 1995.
Contact:
William E. Reynolds, CEM
Emergency Management Coordinator
Naperville Emergency Management Agency
1380 Aurora Avenue
Naperville, IL 60540-6206
Tel: 630-420-6009
Fax: 630-305-5905
Last Modified: Thursday, 30-Mar-2006 10:26:49 EST