On September 30th, CACP was notified by the Department of Homeland Security, FEMA, and Division of the National Continuity Program Directorate of a grant from the IPAWS program: IPAWS (Integrated Public Alert and Warning System) Alerts for People with Disabilities or Language Differences. The award was for approximately $500,000 for one year – September 30, 2013 – September 29, 2014. The CACP Collaborative team efforts were to promote access to emergency communications for people with disabilities by providing advisory support, independent analysis and other professional services to the Directorate in which IPAWS resides. Specifically, the team provided subject matter expertise on regulatory, policy and disability issues by supplying evidence based, unbiased technical and policy options and recommendations on emergency communications, notifications, warnings and alerts that can contribute to advancing the goals of IPAWS to be inclusive of people with disabilities. The diverse assignments included but not be limited to assisting IPAWS in educating relevant agencies, organizations, emergency managers and industry to better understand the needs of people with disabilities during emergencies, informed citizens on mainstream technologies that can be co-opted for use in emergency communications, assisted in supporting the vital work of first responders and state/local emergency managers, assisted in social media activities, and explored ways to provide accessible next generation Wireless Emergency Alerts over various platforms that tie to IPAWS. The CACP Collaborative included the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), the Center for Assistive Technology and Environmental Access (CATEA), the Interactive Media Technology Center (IMTC), and leverages the work of the Wireless RERC also funded by the Federal government.
