http://www.youtube.com/IRSvideosASL

Links by Zip website has a list of non-emergency phone numbers. You can get information of nearest agencies based on your zip code.

http://www.kingcounty.gov/safety/E911/LinksByZip.aspx

WSRID is happy to announce a new resource for current information on legislative actions related to interpreting services for deaf, deaf-blind and hard of hearing citizens of Washington State and across the nation. You can view the new website and blog at: http://www.wix.com/wsridlegcommittee/wsrid-legislative-information

Honolulu, Hawai'i

June 13-17

The Conference hotel is the Waikiki Beach Marriott. The hotel now has the discount rate available and will honor this rate for attendees three days before and after the conference. See the hotel link at the end of this email.

 If you are interested in volunteering as support staff or working as an interpreter, please see the attached documents.

 For more information or for questions, visit the Idaho RID website at http://www.idahorid.org/regionv  Waikiki Beach Marriott

Here are a few ways you can be involved:

Application for Support Staff

Officiall Call for Support Staff

Final Call for Interpreters

Funding Supports Development of Wireless Technologies for People with Disabilities 

ATLANTA (Oct. 19, 2011) –The Georgia Institute of Technology and Shepherd Center have been awarded a $4.75 million, five-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) for research and development of wireless technologies aimed at enhancing the lives of people with disabilities. The grant supports the continuation of a decade of innovative research and engineering at the Wireless Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center (RERC), a collaboration between  Shepherd Center and Georgia Tech.

“This funding will allow us to move into new and emerging areas and leverage our relationships with the wireless industry, disability organizations, governmental agencies, and other researchers and engineers to promote equitable access to wireless technologies and to develop new assistive technologies built on wireless platforms,” said Helena Mitchell, executive director of the Center for Advanced Communications Policy (CACP) at Georgia Tech’s School of Public Policy and principal investigator and co-director of the Wireless RERC grant. “This award affirms the growing importance of wireless technologies for those who have disabilities.”

The award is the third consecutive five-year grant awarded to this team of researchers and engineers.

“We are pleased that NIDRR continues to support the Wireless RERC’s important work,” said Mike Jones, director of Shepherd’s Crawford Research Institute and co-director for the Wireless RERC grant. “The rapid pace at which wireless technology has evolved over the past several years – a pace that is expected to accelerate in the future – requires ongoing effort to ensure that the accessibility needs of people with disabilities are incorporated into new technologies.”

In technology development, the Wireless RERC will launch a new incubator to develop software applications (“apps”); the Apps Factory will fund innovative internal and external ideas on a competitive basis to provide apps to people with disabilities across a wide range of platforms.  This work will enhance accessibility to this critical wireless technology and build new assistive tools based on these “smart” wireless platforms. Additionally, the Wireless RERC will continue its work developing solutions to enhance the effectiveness and accessibility of emergency alerting and access to 9-1-1 emergency services.

The Wireless RERC will also continue its focus on consumer and public policy research, including wireless use and usability by consumers with disabilities and studies that may shape the development of public policy primarily related to general accessibility and emergency communications.

“Our public policy work is a critical component of the Wireless RERC,” Mitchell noted.

Over the years, CACP has submitted 29 filings for proposed rulemakings before the FCC and other regulatory agencies pertaining to issues of telecommunications access and emergency communications. CACP filings have been referenced or cited more than 60 times in ongoing rulemakings, including final rules and orders regarding advanced technologies and accessible mobile alerts.

The Wireless RERC is one of more than 20 RERCs in the  United States. Other RERCs are devoted to fields such as aging, hearing impairment, visual impairment, public transportation, workplace accommodations, universal design, wheeled mobility and information technology access.

Georgia Tech participants in the Wireless RERC also include the Center for Assistive Technology and Environmental Access (CATEA),  College of  Computing (CoC), Interactive Media Technology Center (IMTC), School of Public Policy (SPP) and the  School of  Psychology.

About the Georgia Institute of Technology  

Celebrating 125 years of academic excellence, the Georgia Institute of Technology is one of the world's premier research universities. Ranked seventh among U.S. News & World Report's top public universities and the second best public U.S. engineering and information technology university in the world by Times Higher Education World University Rankings, Georgia Tech enrolls more than 20,000 students within its Colleges of Architecture, Computing, Engineering, Liberal Arts, Management and Sciences, and is the nation's number one producer of female engineering and minority engineering Ph.D. graduates. Receiving approximately $557.8 million in sponsored awards (FY 10) and holding approximately 786 patents, Georgia Tech ranks among the nation's top ten in research expenditures among universities without a medical school.

About  Shepherd Center

Shepherd  Center, located in  Atlanta, GA, is a private, not-for-profit hospital specializing in medical treatment, research and rehabilitation for people with spinal cord injury or brain injury. Founded in 1975,  Shepherd Center is ranked by U.S. News & World Report among the top 10 rehabilitation hospitals in the nation and is a 132-bed facility. Last year  Shepherd Center had 913 admissions to its inpatient programs and 535 to its day patient programs. In addition,  Shepherd Center sees more than 6,300 people annually on an outpatient basis. For more information, visit  Shepherd Center online at shepherd.org.

Useful Links

Wireless RERC                                                           www.wirelessrerc.org

Shepherd  Center                                                         www.shepherd.org

Center for Advanced Communications Policy           www.cacp.gatech.edu

Interactive  Media Technology Center                        www.imtc.gatech.edu

• allow consumers to communicate with 911 in the same way they communicate with 
  others on a daily basis;

   

• enhance public safety by giving consumers the ability to text 911 when they cannot make a  voice call;

   

• be particularly beneficial to people with disabilities; and

   

• provide 911 call centers and first responders with enhanced information that can save lives during emergencies.

   

The Commission seeks comment on short-term and long-term options for enabling consumers to send texts to 911.  It specifically asks about the benefits of SMS text messaging, Internet-based messaging, and real-time text to communicate with 911 centers.  As noted above, it also asks about the use of multimedia NG911 technology that would support delivery of photos, videos, and data to 911 call centers, in addition to text.

If you have an opinion about NG911, you should file comments.  If you agree or disagree with someone else’s comments, you should file reply comments.  You do not have to be a lawyer, or use a law firm to file comments.

Comments are due on December12, 2011 and reply comments are due on January 10, 2012.

Public Notice about the due dates for comments and reply comments

http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2011/db1012/DA-11-1703A1.doc

http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2011/db1012/DA-11-1703A1.pdf

http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2011/db1012/DA-11-1703A1.txt

News Release

http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2011/db0922/DOC-309746A1.doc

http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2011/db0922/DOC-309746A1.pdf

http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2011/db0922/DOC-309746A1.txt

Notice of Proposed Rulemaking

http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2011/db0926/FCC-11-134A1.doc

http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2011/db0926/FCC-11-134A1.pdf

http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2011/db0926/FCC-11-134A1.txt

You can file brief comments by going to http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/ecfs/upload/display?z=lptc2

Enter 11-153 under “Proceeding Number.”

Enter your name and contact information.

Type your brief comment in the space provided.

Click on “Continue” to submit your brief comment. 

You can file longer comments by going to http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/ecfs/upload/display?z=b2yoy

Under “Proceeding” enter 11-153.

Enter your “Contact Information” and “Address” information.

Under “Document(s)” attach the file that contains your comments. 

Click on “Continue” to submit your comments

DATE: September 1, 2011 2:58:07 PM PDT

National Preparedness Month Kicks Off Today

Please visit our Washington EMD website to learn about activities, new videos and information that you can use to prepare your employees and their families for disasters.  http://www.emd.wa.gov/  We're also interested in knowing if the emergency preparedness information and resources we offer meet your needs. Let us know what you're looking for and we can track it down. 

Did you know that you can also follow us on Twitter at - http://twitter.com/#!/waEMD

We'll send periodic emails throughout the month alerting you about the different preparedness activities that are taking place.  Thanks for your participation in National Preparedness month...

The  Washington Emergency Management Division External Affairs Team

View this document online 

Washington Disaster News 

Washington State EMD Main Website

By Cheryl Heppner, 7/6/11

Captioned radio device driving a refreshable electronic Braille device

Just weeks ago NVRC and Hearing Loss Association of America collaborated to round up support for a request that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting provide funding to complete pilot testing of captioned radio in several U.S. cities.  The response from consumer organizations and individual consumers was phenomenal, and we remain hopeful there will be good news about the funding soon.

Meantime we’ve received a boost from another thrilling piece of news.  After two years of discussion and drafting, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has officially adopted the Captioned Radio International Standard.  The standard goes by the name “Digital radio broadcast service, captioned radio” aka ITU-R-BS 1894, and its passage was without opposition by a single one of the 192 member countries in the ITU.

Hurrah for the ITU and keep those fingers crossed for the CPB funding!

© Copyright 2011 by Northern Virginia Resource Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Persons (NVRC), 3951 Pender Drive, Suite 130, Fairfax, VA 22030; www.nvrc.org; 703-352-9055 V, 703-352-9056 TTY, 703-352-9058 Fax. Items in this newsletter are provided for information purposes only; NVRC does not endorse products or services. You do not need permission to share this information, but please be sure to credit NVRC.  This news service is free of charge, but donations are greatly appreciated.