RESNA Announces SoreButts 2000 Contest
Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America
SoreButts 2000 Cushion Design Competition
Purpose
The purpose of this competition is to encourage the creation of inexpensive wheelchair seat cushions for the prevention of pressure ulcers in people with disabilities living in developing nations or impoverished areas of the world.
Deadline
The entry must be received at Beneficial Designs Inc. in California on Friday, June 9, 2000.
Both the completed form and the cushion must be received by the deadline.
Contest rules
Commercially available cushions are not eligible for the competition.
The design should be original and not a modification of an existing product or a previous submission unless significant improvements have been made. Previously submitted designs are not eligible (see attached).
Entry into the contest includes permission for public disclosure of the product design. This does not prevent patenting of the design. Proprietary or restricted information should not be used.
Submissions must be made in English.
Cushions entered into the competition will not be returned.
Procedures
Cushions should be designed for a wheelchair with a seat 16-in (40-cm) wide by 18-in (45-cm) long. Designs should be suitable for different users without significant customization.
Complete the attached entry form for each cushion submitted.
Send the completed entry form and cushion to:
Beneficial Designs, Inc.
SoreButts Cushion Design Competition
5858 Empire Grade
Santa Cruz, CA 95060 USA
Notify Denise Chesney at Beneficial Designs Inc. that an entry has been shipped: , (831) 429-8447 extension 107, fax (831) 423-8450.
Review
All entries will undergo a preliminary review by the Review Team. Approximately ten (10) entries will be selected and then forwarded on for final judging at the RESNA Conference.
Judging
Final judging will occur at the RESNA 2000 Annual Conference "Technology for the New Millennium" in Orlando, Florida, June 28 to July 2, 2000. The entries will be judged by the SoreButts Judging Team consisting of rehabilitation professionals and consumers.
Cushions will be judged on the following: comfort, stability, pressure relief, ease of use, durability, washability, weight/portability, construction cost, and innovation and creativity of the design.
Awards
Notification to entrants of the entries selected for final judging at the RESNA Conference will be made no later than Wednesday, June 21, 2000.
Up to $2,000 USD in total prize money will be awarded. Winners will be announced during the RESNA Conference at the Awards Ceremony. Contestants do not need to be present to win. Notification to entrants of the winning designs and prize money will be awarded no later than August 1, 2000.
Additional Information
If you have any questions, contact Denise Chesney at Beneficial Designs Inc. in Santa Cruz, California, denise@beneficialdesigns.com, (831) 429-8447 extension 107, fax (831) 423-8450.
Additional information is available on the RESNA Web site under the Special Interest Group on International Appropriate Technology (SIG-17). The SIG-17 homepage can be found directly at www.egr.msu.edu/~haddow/sig17/.
The SoreButts Cushion Design Competition is a project of RESNA SIG-17, the Special Interest Group on International Appropriate Technology.
The SoreButts 2000 Cushion Design Competition is sponsored by:
RESNA (The Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America), an interdisciplinary association for the advancement of rehabilitation and assistive technology
1700 N Moore St., Suite 1540 Voice 703.524.6686
Arlington, VA 22209-1903 Fax 703.524.6630
TTY 703.524.6639
E-mail info@resna.org
Beneficial Designs Inc., a rehabilitation engineering design firm
5858 Empire Grade Voice 831.429.8447
Santa Cruz, CA 95060 Fax 831.423.8450
www.beneficialdesigns.com E-mail mail@beneficialdesigns.com
Designs Previously Submitted to the
SoreButts Cushion Design Competition
Entry # Brief Description
96 Bicycle innertubes tied into individual semi-inflated segments, arranged in rectangular pattern 3 layers deep
97-01 Semi-inflated bicycle innertubes woven with cloth strips in checkerboard pattern (single layer)
97-02 Cotton filling in cloth cover, optional cotton anti-thrust wedge
97-03 Foam rubber sheet over contoured coconut coir (scooped out under ischials and tailbone), rubberized cloth cover
97-04 Dry, resilient organic material in woven plastic grain sack
98-01 Wood shavings in quilted cover over shaped wooden base
98-02 Foam beads in fabric cover over coconut coir mat which is slit under ischials for pressure relief
98-03 Buckwheat hulls in a bag sewn from a T-shirt
98-04 Rubber strips woven checkerboard style stretched over wooden frame
98-05 Cotton waste filling (from local textile mill) in quilted cotton cover with rayon outer cover
98-06 Semi-inflated scooter tire wrapped in strips of cloth
98-07 Semi-inflated bicycle innertubes arranged in pressure-relieving "butterfly" pattern, secured by cloth strips
98-08 Sheet of packing foam in rubber cloth cover
98-09 Cotton waste filling (from local textile mill) in cotton cover with embroidered cotton outer cover
99-01 Peanut shells in sewn cotton bag
99-02 Foam peanuts compartmentalized in plastic bags, cotton cover
99-03 Mung bean hulls in a bag sewn from a T-shirt
99-04 Foam rubber sheets and plastic bag of pinto beans in upholstery remnant cover
99-05 Popped popcorn in duct-tape sealed plastic bag, cotton cover
99-06 Foam scraps in washable vinyl cover, compartmentalized to conform to thighs and ischials, cotton outer cover
99-07 Foam block scored in checkerboard pattern to minimize shear, cavity under tailbone filled with coconut fibers, linen cover with zipper
99-08 "Egg crate" foam rubber over molded paper-mache on wood base sealed with paraffin, cotton cover
SoreButts 2000 Cushion Design Competition Entry Form
Please complete all items on this form. Use additional pages as needed.
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13. Attach sketches of the cushion. Indicate dimensions and label all parts.
America's Athletes with Disabilities has expanded its membership
America's Athletes with Disabilities, a consortium of five disabled sports organizations expands to include deaf athletes.
Washington, DC-
America's Athletes with Disabilities announced today that the organization has expanded its membership to include the USA Deaf Sports Federation.
America's Athletes with Disabilities is an umbrella organization with the mission to sponsor and promote sports, recreation leisure and fitness activities for children and adults with physical disabilities. Formed in New York in 1985 as the United States Organization for Disabled Athletes, the organization changed its name to America's Athletes with Disabilities in 1996. The membership includes five Disabled Sports Organizations: Wheelchair Sports USA, US Association of Blind Athletes, US Cerebral Palsy Athletic Association, Dwarf Athletic Association of America and US Les Autres Sports Association.
The inclusion of the USA Deaf Sports Federation (USADSF) brings AAD membership to six of the eight recognized national disabled sports organizations.
David Williamson, President of America's Athletes with Disabilities stated "we are very excited to have the USADSF join us in our efforts to advance the causes of disability sports. We are proud to extend membership to this disability group and to demonstrate inclusion in our membership and actions."
The USADSF, formerly known as the American Athletic Association of the Deaf, was formed in 1945 and is the oldest of the disabled sports organizations. The USADSF is headquartered in Ogden, Utah and provides year-round training to deaf athletes and directly and indirectly through affiliated National Sports Organizations, coordinates athletic competition in a variety of sports at the state, regional, national and international levels. Led by USADSF President Bobbie Beth Scoggins, the organization offers 19 sports through its 18 affiliate organizations. From her home in Frankfort, Kentucky, Dr. Scoggins, expressed enthusiasm for her organizations new affiliation. "The inclusion of USADSF in AAD demonstrates to the world that people with disabilities are working together, with synergy, to advance the causes of disability sports. We are proud to affiliate with AAD and are looking forward to a long and prosperous relationship."
The addition of the USADSF now makes AAD the largest single organization devoted to promoting and sponsoring sports, recreation, leisure and fitness activities for children and adults with physical disabilities. As an umbrella organization, AAD hopes to increase its ability to raise public awareness as well as the necessary funds to expand opportunities for all children and adults with physical disabilities to participate in sports, recreation, leisure and fitness activities. Participation in sports improves the quality of life for individuals with disabilities in the same way that it does for everyone. Increased self confidence, improved physical and social skills, lessons in team work, leadership, cooperation and how to handle success are important for all people" stated Deborah Bonsack, Executive Director of AAD.
The USADSF along with four other AAD members are affiliates of the US Olympic Committee.
For information contact
Deborah Bonsack
301-589-9042
Website: www.AmericasAthletes.org
The California Elks offers scholarships to students with disabilities
The California Elks Major Project Undergraduate Scholarship Program for Students with Disabilities is offering 20 to 30 scholarships for undergraduate or vocational education. Scholarships are $1,000 to $2,000 and are renewable for up to four years. Deadline is March 15.
Call (408) 298-3880 or (408) 727-6044.
A ListServ on Disability Policy
The dpolicy list is sponsored by the DIMENET AND TRIPIL organizations. Both are active participants in the disability rights and independent living movements. To learn more visit their home pages at:
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The list moderators are Jamal Mazrui (empower@smart.net) ad Kelly Pierce (kelly@ripco.com).
Dpolicy fills the void in providing list members the key source documents and articles on emerging issues in the disability community. To that end, the list only exchanges documents, not ideas or viewpoints. There are many excellent lists to explore in-depth a particular disability issue or concern. to ensure that only relevant material is mailed, the list is moderated where only the moderators can post to the Disability Policy list directly. Subscribers are encouraged to share documents of interest to the others on the list by sending them in plain text format. We distribute in plain text format because this is the most universally accessible method, working with any word processor, e-mail program or adaptive equipment. Messages should be sent to the posting address:
dpolicy@tripil.com
A moderator will review the submission for minimal compliance with the list guidelines, make formatting changes for readability if needed, and then generally let the post proceed for distribution to the list.
If you are interested in being a co-moderator, just write to Kelly and Jamal. Not only do moderators approve postings, they also assist subscribers in joining and leaving the list as well as establishing list policies and procedures. We welcome participation from a variety of people from the diverse disability community. Please introduce yourself to the moderators and state that you understand the list guidelines.
All documents distributed through the list are also archived on the World Wide Web at the address http://www.dimenet.com/dpolicy
The administrative address for the dpolicy list is majordomo@tripil.com
Anyone can subscribe to the Disability Policy list by sending a message to majordomo@tripil.com containing the following line in the body (the subject is irrelevant)
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Please spread the word about dpolicy and take informed actions on the local, regional, national, and global levels to improve public policy affecting people with disabilities!
The Second Annual New Media Technology Conference 2000, for Canada
The Second Annual New Media Conference 2000 has a focus on content meeting
technology: New Media in the Educational and Training Sector.
Following last year's very successful International Conference, New Media 1999, we look forward to hosting a Canadian and International Audience of 500 teachers and creators of the New Media:
Interactive Media, Broadcast Media, Digital Media & Design, E-Commerce, Internet Publishing, Course-ware for distance and distributed learning, Web-based learning and teaching systems, digital arts, and more.
Teachers, academics, technical writers, software and hardware vendors, broadcasters, designers of e-commerce and web-based applications in information technology, animation specialists, cultural and museum specialists, digital design specialists will be interested in the following themes:
1. Emerging technologies and applications for the design and production of New Media
2. E-Commerce: IT entrepreneurship, web-based business applications, course-ware retailing,
3. Knowledge management and communications: the virtual school and university, convergence of teaching, research, life-long learning, entertainment, and skills development.
Professor Martin Segger, Conference Chair
Director, Government and Community Relations
Division of External Relations
University of Victoria
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
HANGING UP, next Captioned/Described Film
General Cinema Theaters, Sony Pictures Corporation and WGBH present
HANGING UP
from Sony Pictures Corporation
Rated PG-13
Debuting February 18 with closed captions for deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences featuring the Rear Window Captioning (RWC) system, and descriptive narration for blind and visually impaired audiences featuring the DVS Theatrical System.
This comedy-drama features three sisters--Eve (Meg Ryan), Georgia (Diane Keaton) and Maddy (Lisa Kudrow)--dealing with love, death and the telephone when they learn that their father (Walter Matthau), after years of wild living, intermittent affection, constant phoning and driving them crazy, is finally threatening to die.
The film was written by Nora Ephron (When Harry Met Sally, You've Got Mail) and Delia Ephron and was directed by Diane Keaton.
There is no additional fee to use these systems.
Simply ask the ticket agent for either a reflector or headset when purchasing your tickets. If you are a first time user, ask for the "How to Use" sheet.
Please note, because there are a limited number of both reflectors and headsets available, patrons are encouraged to arrive about 30 minutes prior to the start of the film.
We have listed information about the equipped General Cinema locations that are scheduled to play this film. Always call ahead or check local newspaper movie listings to confirm that the film is playing in the equipped theater and to confirm showtimes. Captions and descriptions will be available for every showing of the film while it plays in the equipped theater.
California
General Cinema Sherman Oaks, Cinema 2,
4500 Van Nuys Boulevard, 818 986-3078
Illinois
General Cinema Yorktown, Cinema 7,
Lombard 443 394-0060
New Jersey
General Cinema Clifton Commons, Cinema 1,
405 Route 3 East, Clifton 973 614-0966
New York (new installation, to be installed in the next several weeks)
General Cinema Bay Plaza Cinemas
Bay Plaza Shopping Center
Bronx, 718 320-1659
Pennsylvania
General Cinema Plymouth Meeting, Cinema 9,
500 Germantown Pike, 610 397-0780
Washington
General Cinema Pacific Place, Cinema 3,
Seattle, 206 652-8908
Wisconsin
General Cinema Mayfair Mall, Cinema 10
Wauwatosa, 414 777-0467
Hanging Up was captioned by The Caption
Center at WGBH, and described by the
Descriptive Video Service (DVS).
These systems were developed by WGBH's Motion Picture Access Project or MoPix,
a project of the CPB/WGBH National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM). We are working to make more films available with closed captions and video descriptions in more venues. A partial list of films that we will be closed captioning and/or describing this year follows. We will alert you to new titles in future postings as they are confirmed by additional film studios.
*TITLES SUBJECT TO CHANGE BASED ON PRODUCTION SCHEDULES AND FINAL RELEASE DATES*
3/10 - Mission to Mars - Buena Vista Pictures (cc only)
April - 28 Days - Sony Pictures
May - Dinosaur - Buena Vista Pictures
June - Gone in 60 Seconds - Buena Vista Pictures (cc only)
June - The Patriot - Sony Pictures
July - The Hollow Man - Sony Pictures
October - The Sixth Day - Sony Pictures
November - Charlie's Angels - Sony Pictures
December - Finding Forrester - Sony Pictures
TBA - 102 Dalmations - Buena Vista Pictures
For more information and answers to frequently asked questions, contact WGBH or visit our Web site (see contact info below). We hope you enjoy Hanging Up, and we welcome your feedback.
Mary Watkins, Outreach Manager
WGBH/Media Access Division
125 Western Avenue, Boston, MA 02134
617 300-3400 v
617 300-2489 TTY
ncam@wgbh.org
www.wgbh.org/access
or www.mopix.org
Articles and Freelance Opportunity
Mr. John Williams is a writer for BusinessWeek Online. He currently has an article under Frontier on talking forms for blind people and speech access to the Internet.
To read it, type in www.BusinessWeek.Com and when the page appears click on Frontier. Your comments on the article and the column on Christopher Reeve are welcome.
I am looking for six freelance writers who can write on disability issues. If you know of anyone or if you can write, please e-mail me a letter and resume and fax me two articles.
Thanks.
Mr. Kurzweil's National Medal of Technology
February 1, 2000. The White House announced this morning that Ray Kurzweil will receive the National Medal of Technology, the nation's highest honor in technology, from President Clinton in a White House Ceremony on March 14, 2000.
The citation on Mr. Kurzweil's National Medal of Technology will read:
For pioneering and innovative achievements in computer science that have overcome barriers for and enriched the lives of disabled persons and of all Americans, including developing the first print-to-speech reading machine for the blind, the first commercially marketed large vocabulary speech recognition technology, and the ground-breaking Kurzweil 250 computer music keyboard.
Following is background information on the National Medal of Technology, and Ray Kurzweil's Brief Biography released by the White House.
Background on the National Medal of Technology.
The National Medal of Technology is the nation's highest honor in technology. Enacted by Congress in 1980, the Medal has been awarded by the President of the United States each year since 1985. It is awarded to several individuals (and/or groups of individuals) each year. In most years, a company has also been honored. There are no categories specified in the award.
Ray Kurzweil's Brief Biography Released by the White House
When Ray Kurzweil was developing the Kurzweil Reading Machine, the first print-to-speech reading machine for the blind, he worked closely with a team of blind engineers and scientists, not just to test the Kurzweil Reading Machine and design its user interface, but on all facets of this complex undertaking. It was a simple but pioneering design philosophy-work closely with the intended users of one's inventions as key participants in the invention process. That philosophy combined with Kurzweil's own innovative genius has led to a dazzling array of landmark inventions.
The Reading Machine itself has been called the most significant advance for the blind since the invention of Braille in the nineteenth century.
Introduced in 1976, it reads ordinary printed materials such as books, magazines and memos to blind, visually impaired and dyslexic persons in a synthesized voice. Its invention required solving several important computer science problems and resulted in the creation of the first omni-font optical character recognition (OCR) technology, the first CCD (Charge Coupled Device) flat-bed scanner and the first text-to-speech synthesizer. Unlike limited-font OCR systems, Kurzweil's OCR recognized print regardless of type style. It would be ten years before anyone else was able to duplicate this capability.
Each of these inventions evolved into what is today a major commercial field or industry, and the technologies that Kurzweil created, and their successors, continue to be market leaders within those industries. Virtually all American information workers use, at least indirectly, CCD flat-bed scanning and omni-font OCR, technologies first created and pioneered by Kurzweil. These are key enabling technologies that have made possible text and multi-media data bases, on-line information services, image and text documents on the World Wide Web and other manifestations of the information age.
When Kurzweil turned his attention to developing the first computer music keyboard that could accurately and convincingly recreate the sounds of the grand piano and other orchestral (i.e., acoustic) instruments, he applied the same lesson he had learned in developing the reading machine. All the engineers and scientists that worked on the new project were musicians, and many were quite accomplished. The Kurzweil 250, introduced in 1984, was able to fool concert pianists in an A-B "blind" comparison as to whether they were hearing a grand piano or the Kurzweil invention. The technology
Kurzweil created allowed musicians for the first time to play the sounds of any acoustic instrument, to play them polyphonically (i.e., multiple notes at a time), and to apply the full range of computer control techniques such as sequencing, layering and sound modification to the rich desirable sounds of acoustic instruments. As with the Reading Machine and the OCR technology, it would be several years before any other person or organization would duplicate this feat..
The type of computer-based music synthesis that Kurzweil pioneered has evolved into what is today a multi-billion dollar industry and is used to create virtually all commercial music-recorded albums, movies, TV, etc. The Kurzweil brand of electronic musical instruments is a market leader and sold in 45 countries.
Kurzweil was also the principal developer of the first commercially marketed large vocabulary speech recognition technology. Kurzweil VOICE Report, introduced in 1987, could convert speech into print, the opposite of the reading machine. Today it is widely used by hands-disabled persons to create written documents, use computers, and control their environment. A combination of Kurzweil's speech recognition technology with a
Kurzweil-developed medical expert system and knowledge base is also widely used by physicians to create medical reports.
Overall, Kurzweil's inventions have involved major advances in computer science, while at the same time yielding practical products that meet fundamental needs. It is rare for one individual to successfully work at both ends of this spectrum. He has also created multiple businesses to bring these inventions to market, all of which continue today as market leaders. His inventions have provided significant benefit to mankind by overcoming major barriers for disabled persons, enriching the world of music, and expanding the usefulness of computers for everyone.
In addition to his inventions, Kurzweil is a prolific author. His latest book, The Age of Spiritual Machines, When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence (Viking, 1999), has quickly achieved a high level of critical and commercial success.
Kurzweil received his BS in computer science and literature from MIT.
Phone Service for Disabled Expanded
KALPANA SRINIVASAN, Associated Press Writer
Phone Service for Disabled Expanded
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Seeking to make the phone network more accessible to all Americans, federal regulators today expanded the scope of services that phone companies must make available to callers with disabilities.
The Federal Communications Commission voted 5-0 to require a new service nationwide that allows users to speak directly to a special operator-trained to identify speech patterns of those with disabilities-who would relay the message to the person on the other end of the line.
The commission's action today also would bolster the quality of services, such as text telephone, that already are available. "We want to make sure that the phone network remains accessible to all Americans," the agency's chairman, William Kennard, said in an interview.
"This is an effort to update the law and expand it so it's keeping pace with technology."
Kennard added that all Americans, not just those with hearing impairments or speech disabilities, would benefit from having a more inclusive system.
The FCC also set a minimum typing speed of 60 words a minute for operators handling TTY calls and a requirement that Spanish-speakers be able to use the services.
Phone carriers would have to make available the new speech-to-speech service
by March 1, 2001.
The new service is especially important to people like Bob Segalman, who used to rely on a text telephone or TTY to communication by phone. But the device posed a fresh set of challenges for Segalman, who has cerebral palsy:
He could only type 10 words a minute.
So he developed a speech-to-speech relay service. "In order to survive in today's world, you need to be able to use the telephone," Segalman said in a relay interview.
Under a 1990 federal law, phone companies that provided voice service had to ensure that relay services were available throughout the region they serve.
All states now offer TTY services in which the user types a message and an operator reads it out loud to the person on the other end. The operator also converts the replies into text.
Relay services are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, at no extra charge.
The cost of paying for interstate relay services comes out of a federal pool-set at $44 million for 2000 -- that all telecommunications carriers pay into and typically recover from consumers. Their contribution is less than 0.04 percent of their gross revenues. Each state handles separately the costs for calls within the state.
It is unclear yet whether the new services will mean greater costs. In Maryland, where speech-to-speech services have been offered since 1996, officials say they have noticed no significant change in costs.
Those who use relay services say they have made an immeasurable difference
in their lives. "It has opened a whole new world to me," said Rebecca Ladew, using a text telephone to answer questions through a Maryland relay operator. "I can communicate with anyone, anywhere, anytime."
Letting Americans know that speech-to-speech services exist, and showing
them how to use them, is critical to making the services a success, users
and advocates say. For example, Segalman noted that some people with speech disabilities have never used the phone before this service became available.
"Many consumers need one-to-one help overcoming psychological barriers to telephone use," Segalman said. But consumers have told the FCC that such services are not always "functionally equivalent" to voice services as required by the Americans With Disabilities Act. They complain that calls sometimes are answered too slowly at the relay facilities or typing becomes too burdensome to transmit lengthy messages. Already, 10 states offer the service in which people with speech disabilities can use their own voice or a voice synthesizer to talk on the telephone, using special relay operators.
Regulators also are encouraging-but not requiring-providers to offer video relay interpreting services. This would let someone give a message in sign language over video conferencing to the operator.
Bell Atlantic, Lucent First To TTY Market
Bell Atlantic, Lucent First To TTY Market
(Thanks to Phillips Telecon)
Jeff Vayda
From the SiliconInvestor
By mid-2001, Bell Atlantic Mobile plans to offer CDMA handsets with text-telephone (TTY) capability. To make this possible, the wireless arm of Bell Atlantic [BEL] will deploy TTY software developed by Lucent Technologies [LU].
The Bedminster, N.J.-based carriers plans to have handset suppliers Audiovox [VOXX], Motorola [MOT] and Qualcomm [QCOMM] provide models embedded with Lucent's TTY chip, which has been approved by the Telecommunications Industry Association for compatibility with the ANSI-41 standard for CDMA and TDMA systems. The handsets will carry prices similar to other CDMA handsets sold by Bell Atlantic.
Lucent will license its TTY technology to wireless providers and manufacturers without charging royalty fees. Lucent's TTY chip is the first to be approved by the TIA, and the first to be available for licensing. Word of the TTY chip's progress hit appreciative ears on Wall Street, and it turned out to be a good day for Lucent. After reporting a 23 percent drop in fiscal first quarter profits last week, Lucent's financial performance was redeemed somewhat when its share price climbed 81 cents to $56.75 in trading before 1:30 p.m. EST today (1/27).
The TTY announcement didn't hurt Bell Atlantic either. Its share price rose 31 cents to $58.06 during the same trading period. But there's no guarantee of success with Bell Atlantic's TTY agenda. For one thing, wireless digital technologies don't transmit TTY signals as well as analog systems. Early TTY tests on digital networks, for example, show those technologies failed to transmit the signals with sufficient accuracy to be relied upon for 911 emergency calls.
However, Lucent, Nokia [NOK] and Motorola [MOT] last year proposed workable solutions to the reliability problem. Lucent's technology detects TTY characters being sent and repeatedly transmits those characters. The repetition allows the receiving end to correctly regenerate the tones corresponding to those characters despite over-the-air errors. The FCC in December 1997 issued an order requiring compatibility of TTY devices with E-911 systems by Oct. 1, 1998. That deadline was extended to the end of 1998, and then the commission allowed wireless carriers to receive waivers for receiving additional extensions of the deadline. However, in May last year the commission stopped granting those waivers after wireless technology vendors reported progress in their TTY developments.
Web Link: http://www3.techstocks.com/stocktalk/msg.gsp?=12708412
Editors Note: TT will keep on top of the Story.
