On January 25, 2024, FCC Chairwoman Rosenworcel announced the tentative agenda for the February 2024 Open Meeting scheduled for 10:30 am EST on Thursday, February 15, 2024. The meeting will be held in the Commission Meeting Room of the FCC, 45 L Street N.E., Washington, D.C 20554. The FCC meeting is also online, and streamed live with open captioning at www.fcc.gov/live.
As part of the agenda, the Commission will consider a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) intended to simplify the process for alert originators to send multilingual emergency alerts over television and radio using the Emergency Alert System (EAS). If this NPRM is adopted at the February 15 meeting, comment due dates will be announced when available.
The EAS Multilingual Accessibility NPRM proposes to create template alert scripts that would be pre-translated into the 13 most commonly spoken non-English languages in the United States, and seeks comment on the feasibility of developing and implementing American Sign Language (ASL) video alerts.
News Release with Open Meeting Agenda for February 15, 2024, Open Meeting:
https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-announces-tentative-agenda-february-open-meeting-9
DRAFT EAS Multilingual Accessibility NPRM:
https://www.fcc.gov/document/increasing-accessibility-emergency-alert-system
February 15, 2024 Meeting Webpage:
https://www.fcc.gov/news-events/events/2024/02/february-2024-open-commission-meeting
Reasonable Accommodations: Open captioning will be provided for this meeting. Other reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities are available upon request. In your request, please include a description of the needed accommodation and how you may be reached if we need more information. E-mail your request to fcc504@fcc.gov or call (202) 418-0530.
For general information about the accessibility of EAS, visit: https://www.fcc.gov/eas-faq-accessibility. For specific questions about this NPRM, contact David Munson, Attorney Advisor, Cybersecurity and Communications Reliability Division (CCRD), Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau (PSHSB), at David.Munson@fcc.gov or (202) 418-2921, or George Donato, Associate Division Chief, CCRD, PSHSB, at George.Donato@fcc.gov or (202) 418-0729. Individuals who use videophones and are fluent in ASL may call the FCC’s ASL Consumer Support Line at (844) 432-2275 (videophone).