Meeting the Challenge of Emergency Notification Non-Reliant on Sound
Location: Washington, D.C.
Campus Type: Urban
Enrollment: 2,032
Faculty: 909
Campus Size: 99 acres
Building Count: 50
Established: 1864
“In an age of improvement like the present, society does not rest satisfied with the achievement of mere essentials. The genius of civilization demands progress until absolute perfection is attained.”
– Edward Miner Gallaudet, 1867
When Edward Gallaudet, the first president of Gallaudet University, helped create the world’s first and only higher education institution for the deaf and hard of hearing, he advanced civilization closer to the absolute perfection he envisioned.
Like Edward Gallaudet, the founders of Alertus Technologies refused to be satisfied with the current perception of what was possible. So when Gallaudet University sought out a system capable of meeting its unique challenges for emergency notification, Alertus’ solutions were a
perfect fit.
Challenge
With a campus population comprised mostly of deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals, it was critical for Gallaudet University to have a notification system non-reliant on sound to attract attention or convey important information during times of emergency. Previous efforts toward emergency notification required students and faculty to either be on a computer to see the alerts or voluntarily check for emergency emails. Gallaudet sought a system that would notify individuals of potentially life-saving information regardless of where they were.
Solution
Fabienne Collson, Communication Services Manager at Gallaudet University, discusses how the University overcame its unique challenges with the Alertus System.
I was involved in the research to determine whether we wanted to use the Alertus System. We went out to the University of Maryland to watch the system at work, and after the demonstration, we knew we wanted to implement Alertus for Gallaudet’s emergency notifications. We originally installed 13 Alertus Alert Beacons®, but we’ve been expanding ever since. We have several new buildings under construction, and we ensure Alertus is part of every new building from the beginning.
We never found another system that could provide what the Alert Beacon could. Regarding our previous systems, emergency desktop broadcast and email alerts, both systems depended on people at their desks to either see the pop-up or read their email. The Alert Beacon notifies the entire building. If people aren’t at their desks, they’ll still receive that vital information and pass that message to others. It’s also easy for dispatchers to choose a pre-selected message or customize their own.
We integrated our email alert system to send cohesive email notifications from one interface. So many add-ons from Alertus expand the system’s capabilities, and we’ve been working to implement each one.
ADA Compliant
We needed very visible, visual alerting, so flashing lights and the ability to customize the flashing patterns for different types of emergencies were essential to us. The Alert Beacon’s bright yellow case stands out even when it’s not activated, and the ability to put a text message on the display that people can read is excellent. Alertus’ ability to quickly send visual alerts is critical for us.
Notification Coverage
Implementing the Alertus System in phases benefits us because of the cost. Our department paid for the first several phases of deployment. Still, since then, people have become so interested that we now have contributions from different departments that want Alert Beacons in their classrooms and office areas.
Since investing in Alertus, we’ve also installed the Alertus Desktop Notification software on computers, which we received free of charge through Alertus’ Safe in Seconds Initiative. Alertus Desktop Notification provides redundancy; the more methods to notify people, the better.
Notifying the campus from inside our facility gives us complete and quick control over disseminating information. Our communications center always has the most current and up-to-date campus activity information. With Alertus, we can quickly communicate that information by sending a consistent message to the entire campus. If we obtain updated details about handling the crisis, we can instantly send another message to give updated instructions on handling the emergency.
Location-Based Alerting
The Alertus interface allows each Alert Beacon to be assigned to a location — the student academic center, the cafe, individual dormitories, etc. It’s a great feature that enables us to set up particular groups to send messages to specific locations.
For instance, a while back, we had a suspicious package left near a building. With Alertus’ location-based alerting, we sent one message to the building the box was outside of and a different message to the surrounding buildings. Situations as such prove it’s essential to have the capability of isolating specific locations. Alertus allows us to do that and more with ease.