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Abstract
Access to emergency services is mandated by Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The Department of Justice oversees the accessibility of public safety answering points (PSAPs), popularly called 9-1-1 centers. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has at least two roles in emergency number access: (1) as regulator of the ADA's Title IV on telecommunications access, and (2) as regulator of communications companies with regard to support of and interconnection with PSAPs. The rules of both agencies contributed significantly to the improvement during the 1990s of access to 9-1-1 for people who are deaf, hard of hearing, or speech disabled. However, as new technologies for text wireless communications and relay services have moved quickly to Internet protocol (IP)-based technologies over the past 5–8 years, the use of traditional wireline telephones and text telephones among deaf, hard of hearing, and speech-disabled people has declined. PSAPs cannot be contacted via the newer forms of telecommunications, such as e-mail, instant messaging, and IP-based forms of relay services, including video relay services. The gap between the technology supported by policy and the technologies currently being used by deaf and hard of hearing people has become a serious problem that is difficult to solve because of the separate jurisdictions of the two agencies, the need for coordination within the FCC, technological challenges, and funding issues. In this article, the key policy and technology challenges will be analyzed and recommendations made for short-and long-term solutions to this dilemma.