Emergency Awareness

By Brooke Newell

There seems to be a growing awareness of the issues faced by people with a hearing loss in life-threatening and emergency situations. This report is presented courtesy of the Northern Virginia Resource Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (NVRC). In July, 2006 the USAccess Board held a public meeting on Communication Access in Washington DC. Lise Hamline, Emergency Preparedness Specialist, gave a presentation which began, "In 2005, two friends of mine, Blair and Anita Mazin, died in New York City because they were deaf. They came home late one night, and like many people with hearing loss have done, walked away from their car without realizing they had not turned the engine off. Blair and Anita's car was in a garage underneath their bedroom.""

"People who can hear the low rumble of their car's engine at a distance have a hard time understanding how someone could unintentionally leave it running. They also rarely consider the potential impact of building a garage under a sleeping area. Blair and Anita's home was equipped with a carbon monoxide detector, but that detector gave only an audible alert. The next door neighbor heard it, but too late. Blair and Anita had already died."

"NVRC applauds the Access Board's efforts to look beyond the Code as it now exists to ensure safety of all our citizens." Here are some of Lise's other remarks on Alerts While Sleeping:

  • A study from Combustion Science & Engineering found that detectors with strobe lights are actually 53% less effective than the standard audible smoke detector.
  • A stand-alone, plug-in-the-wall visual smoke detector will range in cost from $145 to $170; audible alerts are available for as little as $8.
  • Visual alerts can only be counted on to wake people in the same room, unlike audible alarms that will alert people in adjacent rooms. That means a hotel must consider installing alerts in each room or, better installing an inter-connected system.
  • Hotel owners have been reluctant to re-wire the systems they have to accommodate people with a hearing loss, instead providing them with stand-alone devices that are ineffective unless the fire starts in the same room as the device.
  • Combustion Science & Engineering developed a tactile alert that linked to an audible alert. A prototype for that device was on display in 2005. They hoped to have that product ready fro sale in 2006 at a cost of approximately $50. They were unable to locate funding for further development of the product.
  • The Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA) provided comments at the Access Board's ADA 15th Anniversary Forum in 2005. Commenting on audible alarms, they noted that "the majority of people with a hearing loss have much better hearing in the low frequencies ... Existing research regarding the waking effectiveness of smoke alarms demonstrates that many people wake up much more quickly and reliably to low-frequency sounds. There should be an upper limit placed on the frequency of audible alarms."
  • NVRC urges the Access Board to set standards for safety in sleeping areas that include alternate alerts such as tactile alerts and pagers integrated into the building's fire alarm system as well as low-frequency audible alerts.