A day of committee meetings. I jumped tracks today and hung out with the Non-Traditional croud. Most of the day was spent working out the cost model for a national IP network providing authentication and security across the United States and Canada. This separates the ESNet (Emergency Services Network) from the Internet (where you are now).
Part way through the afternoon, we met with the Accessibility committee to discuss data only devices used by the Deaf. Back in the day, the data only device we would have been talking about would have been a TTY using BAUDOT. The purpose of our meeting was to get a better understanding of today’s communications used by our non-verbal citizens. Turns out the Sidekick, Blackberry and instant messenger services are replacing the old funky TTY. Well, it’s about time.
The trouble is that this shift in technology poses some significant problems for a 9-1-1 center. PSAPs are not prepared to receive SMS messaging or IMoIP (Instant Messaging over Internet Protocol). By the way, if IMoIP catches on, please send the royalty checks to… Are the PSAPs going to find themselves out of compliance with the ADA? Probably not for a while but once these devices truly become mainstream appliances for the Deaf, it could happen.
So what can we do? These technologies pose some of the same challenges as do VoIP systems. You need to determine location, the correct routing and a secure interface to communicate with the PSAP. the i2 solution, due to be published in June and described on the first day of the TDC fits this pretty well. There would have to be modifications on the user equipment and a moderate amount of infrastructure put n place by the service provider, but I think that this is a viable channel of communications for PSAPS to the Deaf community as well as a growing portion of the Hearing community. If any of you have teenagers, you know that they probably text each other more than they talk. Why not give them the ability to reach emergency assistance in every way possible.
If you’re from a PSAP, what do you think about handling text messaging and/or instant messages coming through the Internet? I look forward to your valued comments.
