On March 22, 2013, the Wireless RERC provided comments and recommendations to the National Weather Service (NWS) regarding its efforts to simplify and clarify the language used to convey emergency weather information. Through research with people experiencing hearing loss whose primary language is American Sign Language (ASL), the Wireless RERC has learned that the wording commonly used in emergency weather messages can be confusing when translated into ASL. According to participants in field trials conducted by the Wireless RERC, it is preferable to accommodate deaf individuals who utilize ASL as their primary language with ASL interpretation of written or spoken English. Since national, state and local alerting systems rely on the NWS for weather related emergency information and pass through identical verbiage, which may be translated by sign language interpreters, it is critical that the NWS language be clear and remove any jargon, truncated text or idiomatic expressions. To that end, the Wireless RERC recommended that the NWS contact organizations representing the interests of people who are Deaf and requested that the proposed language be vetted amongst people whose primary language is ASL. In addition, the Wireless RERC is developing an ASL Video Clip library of emergency terms that have been vetted by the ASL community, which will be shared with the NWS once complete.
