In all honesty, the world is nothing but a hotbed of conflicting interests. After all, more often than not, we are just trying to place our ambitions and desires over everyone else’s. This unsurprisingly creates a volatile environment where the impact of every move can be so devastating that, at times, we end up never recovering from it. To tone down the said volatility, we have set up dedicated regulatory bodies across the board. These regulatory bodies are tasked with the responsibility of enforcing certain rules within the area of their concern. Furthermore, they also have the power to take disciplinary actions against any ill-intentioned activities falling outside the established regulations, as the most important function for such bodies remains of protecting different interests in play. It must be noted, however, that the idea around governance isn’t just supposed to be reactive. Instead, throughout the history, we have received enough evidence for its ability to act in a fairly proactive manner, and one similar testimony was delivered recently by FCC.
The Federal Communications Commission has officially put-forth a new proposal, which focuses on enhancing the accessibility of emergency alerts for people who are deaf or having other hearing issues. As per the new proposal, FCC wants broadcasters, cable systems, and other participants in the emergency alerts system (EAS) to enlist a new internet-based version of Common Alerting Protocol. For TV alerts, on the other hand, the commission has encouraged a clearer and more descriptive visual representation to compensate for a lack of hearing.
Poorly constructed messages have long been known to cause severe repercussions, and even more so, for people suffering from sensory disabilities. FCC Chairwoman, Jessica Rosenworcel pointed to the example of “freak weather” conditions like tornadoes as a situation that can potentially spell lasting impact on individual hailing from the said group, if the broadcasting outlets fail to share the right message.
“But we do know that we are seeing these kinds of storms with greater frequency,” Rosenworcel said. “And I think we have a responsibility to improve the warning systems we have, to get people the news they need in an emergency,” she said.
FCC has had emergency alerts on its agenda for some time now. Earlier this year in June, the commission combined Presidential Alerts and alerts from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and brought them into one unified National Alerts category.
