Emergency Communications Toolkit State of Texas May 2015
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STATE OF TEXAS EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATIONS TOOLKIT MAY 2015 Published by the Texas Disability Task Force on Emergency Management Effective Communications CONTENTS Table of Contents STATE OF TEXAS EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATIONS TOOLKIT MAY 2015 ............. i Table of Contents .........................................................................................................ii 1 ADA Best Practices Tool Kit for State and Local Governments: General Effective Communication Requirements under Title II of the ADA .................... 8 2 Legal Authority ...................................................................................................... 9 Section 508 .................................................................................................................. 9 3 Purpose ................................................................................................................. 11 4 Situation and Assumptions in Emergency Situations ................................... 12 5 Language Usage .................................................................................................. 13 People First Language ............................................................................................... 13 Plain Language .......................................................................................................... 14 The Plain Language Writing Process ...................................................................... 15 Plain Language Writing and Formatting Techniques .............................................. 16 Charts, Graphs, Maps, and Visuals ........................................................................... 17 6 Support Accessible Meetings ............................................................................ 17 7 Multiple Delivery Methods and Redundancy .................................................. 17 Communication with Traditional Media ...................................................................... 18 Spokespersons ....................................................................................................... 18 Accessible Live Press Conferences for State and Local Governments .................. 19 8 Developing Accessible Messaging .................................................................... 21 Document Accessibility Law ....................................................................................... 21 Electronic Documents ................................................................................................ 21 Accessibility and Section 508 Compliance Guidelines ............................................... 22 What is Accessibility? ............................................................................................. 22 Benefits of Accessible Information .......................................................................... 22 Accessibility Laws and Standards........................................................................... 23 How does accessible web design benefit all Web users? ....................................... 23 Quick Tips on Accessibility ..................................................................................... 24 Resources .............................................................................................................. 24 PowerPoint Files ..................................................................................................... 27 ii Effective Communications CONTENTS Additional Information for Accessible Documents ................................................... 29 9 Videos and Multimedia Accessibility ................................................................ 31 508 Compliant Videos ................................................................................................ 31 Captioning .................................................................................................................. 31 Closed Captioning of Videos ...................................................................................... 32 Multimedia.................................................................................................................. 32 Software to play videos, audio, and multimedia ......................................................... 33 Key Areas to Test for Accessibility ............................................................................. 34 Resources .................................................................................................................. 35 10 Social Media Accessibility ............................................................................... 35 Social Media as a Public Address System ................................................................. 36 Social Media as an Information Source ..................................................................... 37 Tips and Guides for people with a disability on how to access social media ............. 38 Twitter ..................................................................................................................... 38 Facebook ................................................................................................................ 39 YouTube ................................................................................................................. 40 11 Print Messaging ................................................................................................ 42 Large Print and Contrast ............................................................................................ 42 Low Vision Font Sizes ................................................................................................ 43 12 Creating Audio Files......................................................................................... 45 13 Braille Conversion ............................................................................................ 45 14 Visual Images ................................................................................................... 46 15 Universal Language for Messaging ............................................................... 46 16 Auxiliary Aids and Services ............................................................................ 47 American Sign Language (ASL) Interpreting.............................................................. 47 Communication Access Real Time Translation (CART) ............................................ 47 Audio Conversion ....................................................................................................... 48 Telecommunication Relay Services (TRS) ................................................................ 48 Relay Texas Services ................................................................................................ 52 Speech-to-speech ................................................................................................... 52 Internet relay service .............................................................................................. 52 iii Effective Communications CONTENTS Video relay service (VRS) ....................................................................................... 52 Information about VRS ........................................................................................... 53 TTY (text telephone) ............................................................................................... 53 Voice users ............................................................................................................. 54 ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) ............................... 54 Hearing carry-over .................................................................................................. 54 Spanish speaking users .......................................................................................... 55 Deafblind callers ..................................................................................................... 55 Text-Based Relay ................................................................................................... 55 VCO (voice carry over) ........................................................................................... 56 17 Tips for Interacting with People with Disabilities, and Functional and Access Needs During a Disaster ............................................................................. 57 General Etiquette ....................................................................................................... 57 Seniors ....................................................................................................................... 58 People Who Use a Service Animal ............................................................................ 59 People Who Have Mobility Impairments .................................................................... 60 People Who Use Crutches, Canes or Other Mobility Devices.................................... 60 Evacuating People Who Use a Wheelchair ............................................................... 60 People Who Have a Mental Illness ............................................................................ 62 People Who Are Blind or Have Low Vision ................................................................ 63 People Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing .................................................................. 64 General tips for communicating with people who are deaf or hard of hearing: ....... 64 Communicating