Congressman Dan Goldman Cosigns Letter Urging FCC to Examine Expanding Language Access for Wireless Emergency Alerts
Alerts Currently Only Available in English and Spanish
Asian American and Non-Spanish Speaking Communities Often Left Without Critical Information
Read the Letter Here
Washington, D.C. – Congressman Dan Goldman (NY-10) this week co-signed a letter urging the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to examine an expansion of languages provided by Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEAs). Currently, WEAs support alerts in only English and Spanish.
"Emergency alert language access is critical for the safety of non-English or Spanish speaking immigrant communities like those in the Manhattan Chinatown and Sunset Park neighborhoods of my district,” Congressman Dan Goldman said. “Wireless Emergency Alerts have saved countless lives, and with a rapidly growing Asian immigrant population in my district and across the nation it is imperative that our government is providing the necessary services to support them. I will continue to work tirelessly to deliver on my campaign promise of expanding language access across the board for Asian American communities.”
Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEAs) have saved countless lives during severe weather events, stay at home orders, AMBER alerts, and other emergencies. With a growing Asian immigrant population, Asian Americans are expected to be “the nation’s largest immigrant group by the middle of the century.” Yet, only about 57 percent of the foreign-born Asian community are proficient in English. This leads to non-English and non-Spanish speakers being vulnerable during emergencies due to a language barrier.
In the absence of alerts in multiple languages, non-Spanish speaking immigrant communities across the country are left without critical information to protect themselves in response to severe weather and other emergency situations.
This letter asks the FCC the following questions:
- Since FCC Order 16-127, have discussions of expansion of the language access in WEAs occurred in talks between the FCC and industry stakeholders? What has been the biggest concern from stakeholders? Does the FCC find any such concerns as being pertinent, probable, and pernicious?
- Has the FCC studied the technical feasibility of the expansion of WEA languages beyond English and Spanish since FCC Order 16-127? If so, what were the findings of any such studies? If not, does the FCC plan on directing the Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) to begin a study in the future?
- What challenges did industry face implementing the Spanish language requirement for emergency alerts? What challenges would industry face implementing an additional language for emergency alerts, including languages that utilize a non-roman alphabet?
- Has the FCC taken comments or done outreach to growing non-English and non-Spanish speaking minority groups?
The letter was led in the House of Representatives by Congresswoman Grace Meng (NY-6).
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