by Kathryn Hill on January 23, 2011
A recent conversation with an acquaintance from an internet community I frequent prompted me to write this post. He’s not deaf, but he works from home in a basement with headphones on, and often misses the doorbell being rung. He asked the community if it was possible to somehow have his doorbell alert him via Growl on OSX, and I thought this was a really great idea, so I’m throwing it out here. I did a lot of Googling, but didn’t come up with a solution. With the level of technical, hacker, and Burning Man expertise that can be drawn upon here, I am sure someone reading this can put something together.
Alert systems for the deaf are often expensive and bulky. Generally, the basic concept is that one has several central transmitters in various rooms of the house that are hooked up to a lamp. Extra transmitters hooked up to the doorbell, smoke alarm, motion detector, baby monitor, and intruder alarm send wireless signals to the central transmitters, and they will cause the lamps they are hooked into to flash, and in some cases, a bed to vibrate. In some cases, doorbell and smoke alarm systems have to be hard-wired and installed by a professional electrician. There are pager-sized accessories that one can attach to their belt that will send vibrations when a signal is received, but to me, that’s the equivalent of buying a kitchen unitasker like an avocado slicer. Why have extra gadgets? Why not hack the gadgets we currently have?
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by Kathryn Hill on February 8, 2008
Officials in Los Angeles are looking into implementing a text message system for 911 emergency services that would allow people to send not only text messages, but also photos and videos from their cell phones when immediate assistance is required.
Officials told the L.A. Police Commission that they were beginning to seek money to install the new system, which they believe could aid crime fighting by providing callers with alternative methods for alerting authorities and police with new visual evidence.
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by Kathryn Hill on April 29, 2007
I’ve posted about this before, and I’m going to keep posting about it, especially after reading this article in the New York Times:
In Bessemer, Ala., city employees could not get through to their own 911 system when a colleague had a seizure, at a time when the city and others like it are struggling to upgrade their systems at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Yet even the newest systems cannot adequately handle Internet-based phone services or text messages, which emerged as the most reliable form of communication during Hurricane Katrina.
“Everyone expects 911 to work perfectly 100 percent of the time,” said Patrick Halley, the governmental affairs director for the National Emergency Number Association, whose state-by-state tracking shows that New York, New Jersey and Connecticut are in the forefront of adopting new technology. “And the public doesn’t really care about 911 until they go to use it and expect it to work perfectly and it doesn’t.”
They’re aware of the problems that the current system causes for the deaf:
Experts are laying the groundwork for what they call Next Generation 911, which will better handle Internet-based calls, text messages, cellphone photos and other forms of communication already in common use.
“Deaf people are using text messaging,” Rick Jones, the operations director for the national association, said by way of example. “They can’t talk to 911.”
I hope the new changes come soon – and well before someone desperately needs them.
by Kathryn Hill on April 26, 2007
Mobile FYI has launched a text messaging hurricane alert system for Florida hurricanes. Very useful for both deafies and hearing people.
by Kathryn Hill on April 17, 2007
The Emergency Email & Wireless Network provides SMS and email notification services that notify subscribers about local, regional, and national emergencies such as natural disasters, Amber Alerts, breaking news, and Homeland Security information. They also offer a bird flu alert. The service is free in exchange for agreeing to receive messages from sponsors.
by Kathryn Hill on March 29, 2007
I’ve recently started using Twitter (I’m “Kosmonaut“) which is a mini-blogging and social networking service that allows users to type short messages (140 characters or less) using mobile phone SMS, the Twitter web interface, and/or Instant Messenger. These messages are brief and generally answer the “what are you doing?” question, though the messages can be used to relay information such as “I’m going to be at Bar X at 9:30, come join me.” Messages are delivered to other users who have added you as a “friend,” and can be customized to only go to people you select as friends. You can also specify Twitter message delivery to go to your IM, SMS, RSS, or email as you wish, and you can turn off delivery from people who are too chatty for your tastes but still want to keep them friended.
I’ve found it to be pretty useful in that it’s a good way to send immediate information about plans and organizations to a group of people in a condensed format; instead of 20 messages, you only have to send one. As a deaf person, I see this application as being very helpful at large venues like SXSW, E3, the Sundance Film Festival, SIGGRAPH, etc where information is usually passed around via word of mouth. In these largely hearing environments, the deaf and hard of hearing can miss out on “what’s cool,” “must see!” and where the good parties are. Twitter has the capacity to be the proverbial “ear to the ground” in these situations and make the communication playing field a little more even for the deaf.
In addition, I discovered that Twitter has an earthquake alerting system for the San Francisco Bay area. This is a good idea. In emergency situations, televisions, telephones, and the Internet may not work. In these kinds of situations, information usually comes over a radio, but that does not work well for the deaf. When other technologies fail during a disaster, mobile phones and SMS are often the last ones standing. Therefore, why are they not utilized more?
I started looking for more “emergency alert” Twitters, and did not find any others, but I see great potential here. If you know of any more emergency Twitters, please let me know.
by Kathryn Hill on February 9, 2007
A government official in Chicago called for 911 emergency services to be able to accept SMS/text messages. This option is already available in Japan and should be available in the United States. Currently, the only way for the deaf and hearing impaired to contact 911 emergency services is to call directly on a TTY/TDD. But what if you aren’t near one? TTY/TDD machines can only be connected to a landline. Emergency call centers do not allow calls from Relay services, so that is not an option. Being able to SMS/text an emergency call center would be a very useful option in an emergency, and lawmakers need to take note.
