20,000 TTY to 911 Calls Each Year: Emergency Access Advisory Committee Meets Again June 21, 2013
Emergency Information and Services
March 31, 2013. The FCC’s Emergency Access Advisory Committee (EAAC) (PDF) will meet again on Friday June 21, 2013 from 10:30 am to 3:30 pm EST. The EAAC is an advisory committee set up on December 7, 2010 as mandated by the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 (CVAA). This federal advisory committee focuses on evaluating and determining the most effective technologies that enable individuals with disabilities access to Next Generation 911 (NG 9-1-1). The agenda for the upcoming EAAC meeting includes discussion from EAAC subcommittees on reports and related activities.
A key conversation for the EAAC concerns the use of TTYs. While it is sometimes said that the TTY is obsolete and not used anymore, there are still about 100,000 TTY users in the U.S. and about one third of text relay traffic is still generated by TTY devices. Significantly, the FCC estimates there are about 20,000 emergency calls made each year using TTYs. Read FCC March 2013 Report on TTYs and Transition here. (PDF)
The upcoming EAAC meeting is open to the public and held at the FCC HQ, 445 12th Street SW, Washington, DC. For additional information about the upcoming meeting or the EAAC contact FCC staffer Suzy Rosen Singleton via Email or phone 202-810-1503.
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