INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATION UNION
JOINT COORDINATION ACTIVITY
ON ACCESSIBILITY AND HUMAN
FACTORS
TELECOMMUNICATION
STANDARDIZATION SECTOR
DOC 54
STUDY PERIOD 2013-2016
English only
Original: English
TD
(Ref: FG AVA - LS 27 -E)
Source:
FG AVA
Title:
LSI from FG AVA to ITU-D on draft third edition of "Handbook on Emergency
Telecommunications"
LIAISON STATEMENT
For action to:
ITU-D Q22-1/2, FG-DR&NRR
For comment to:
-
For information to:
JCA-AHF, ITU-D SG 2, ITU-D SG 1, SG2, SG16
Approval:
FG AVA Management (12 April 2013, by correspondence)
Deadline:
15 June 2013
Takayuki ITO
ITU FG-AVA WG-C cocoordinator
David Wood
ITU-T FG AVA Vice chair
Contact:
Contact:
E-mail:
itou.t-gq@nhk.or.jp
E-mail: wood@ebu.ch
A new liaison statement has been received from FG AVA.
.
Attention: Some or all of the material attached to this liaison statement may be subject to ITU copyright. In such a case this will be
indicated in the individual document. Such a copyright does not prevent the use of the material for its intended purpose, but it prevents
the reproduction of all or part of it in a publication without the authorization of ITU.
-2-
AVA – LS 027 – E
INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATION UNION
TELECOMMUNICATION
STANDARDIZATION SECTOR
English only
STUDY PERIOD 2013-2016
Original: English
Geneva, 12 April 2013
WG(s):
LIAISON STATEMENT
Source:
FG AVA
Title:
LSOR from FG AVA to ITU-D on draft third edition of "Handbook on Emergency
Telecommunications"
LIAISON STATEMENT
For action to:
ITU-T FG-DR&NRR; ITU-D Q22-1/2 and Correspondence Group on
“Handbook on Emergency Telecommunications"
For comment to:
-
For information to: ITU-T SG2, SG16, JCA-AHF; ITU-D SG1 and SG2
Approval:
FG AVA Management (12 April 2013, by correspondence)
Deadline:
15 June 2013
Contact:
Takayuki ITO
ITU FG-AVA WG-C co-coordinator
E-mail:
itou.t-gq@nhk.or.jp
Contact:
David Wood
ITU-T FG AVA Vice chair
E-mail:
wood@ebu.ch
ITU-T FG AVA prepared FG AVA LS19R1 (February 2013), as a reply to your ITU-D Q22-1/2 LS 1 -E. In that reply, the FG promised to arrange for some FG AVA experts to further inquiry over
aspect for persons with disabilities, especially in connection with natural and man-made disasters.
This Liaison contains that promised feedback.
Media accessibility including broadcasting and telecommunications is very important aspect for
persons with disabilities especially in connection with natural and man-made disasters.
FG AVA is glad to provide the following considerations:
In disaster situations, accessibility for telecommunication and broadcasting is vitally important for
persons with disabilities. A survey of emergency communication during the East Japan Earthquake
and following tsunami in 2011shows that the death rate for persons with disabilities was twice as
high as for persons without disabilities [1], [2].
Information such as tsunami alert and evacuation announcement should be distributed in multimodal expressions so that persons with hearing or visual impairments can access it. For example, if
a siren to alert an occurrence of tsunami is accompanied by blinking flashlight, both persons with
hearing impairments and those with normal hearing will be aware of the warning.
Broadcasting emergency alerts also should be made accessible to persons with visual and/or
auditory impairments in the form of speech, captions/subtitles and sign language offered in parallel.
As an emergency develops, TV and radio broadcasting play key roles to get emergency alerts to
-3-
people living in the areas affected by the disaster. Broadcasting provides reliable information
collected and collated from reliable news sources such as the authorities and the sites of the incident.
Such information is therefore vitally important for everybody regardless of their capabilities or
disabilities.
Early-warning systems which alert citizens about the occurrence of a disaster and provide
information about the steps they should take (including evacuation) save lives in the affected areas.
Mobile reception terminals for these systems are especially important to save lives of those who
have to stay outdoors. For persons with disabilities, multi-modal alert expressions are important as
was mentioned above.
Examples of such warning systems include the Emergency Warning Broadcasting System (EWBS)
of the Japanese digital broadcasting system, the Early Earthquake Warning System (EEW) in Japan
and the Emergency Alert System (EAS) in the USA. When a huge tsunami struck just after the East
Japan Earthquake, passengers on a train running in the Fukushima Prefecture barely escaped from
the tsunami and were evacuated safely, thanks to the EWBS for mobile TV receivers [3], [4].
Accessibility of information provided to evacuees is also important. Communication tools for deaf
people such as a sign language interpretation service, a sign language relay service for telephone
communication and text communication tools such as e-mail are vital. Without them, evacuees may
lack food and water, and they may get isolated even when staying in a public refuge with other
people.
Similarly, communication with visually impaired people also should be carefully considered. For
example, important information such as food delivery time and the safety of members of their
families and acquaintances is usually put on bulletin boards in refuge sites. Visually impaired
people find it difficult to get information provided in visual form only.
When emergencies happen, access services for foreigners also should be provided so that they
understand the incident as quickly as citizens of the country. Announcements should be provided in
a lingua franca such as English, or possibly in multiple languages both in written and spoken form.
Emergency alerts can be provided via a bilingual audio or subtitle service of TV broadcasting, or
via an internet news service. Integrated broadcast systems (i.e. hybrid broadcast-broadband
television systems) have the potential to provide subtitles in multiple languages for foreigners in the
future.
An automatic translation technology would also be a good help for such a service. A possible
solution would be through a smart-phone application which does multilingual machine translation.
We welcome future communication and look forward to further collaboration with you.
Please copy the FG AVA secretariat (tsbfgava@itu.int) in your reply.
[1] http://www.dinf.ne.jp/doc/english/twg/escap_121031/fujii.html
[2] http://www.asahi.com/special/10005/TKY201105230516.html (in Japanese)
[3] http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/asp/CMS/Events/2012/emergencyworkshop/Toshiyuki_Yokota.pdf
[4] http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/national/news/20110329-OYT1T00626.htm (in Japanese)
______________