The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) International is seeking comments on a Candidate American National Standard (ANS) released today that identifies minimum training requirements for the use of TTY/TDD in public safety communications.

This standard, written in conjunction with the National Emergency Number Association (NENA), addresses the minimum training requirements, in general, necessary to foster levels of consistency for all personnel in an emergency communications environment assigned to answering TTY/TDD calls for service specifically in the public safety environment. This standard responds to the valid needs of the rapidly expanding and ever-changing industry, providing competent training standards while defining training in certain knowledge, skills, and abilities, and recognizing the need to supplement basic competencies with agency-specific information and existing equipment use parameters.

“Support for the speech and hearing impaired community remains a priority for public safety communications.  Through the development and implementation of standards such as this, designed to train and prepare telecommunicators to quickly and accurately process calls for help, APCO will continue to provide support to this community now and in the future,” said John Wright, president of APCO International.

The public review and comment period is an important step in the standard development process. This provides an opportunity for all interested parties to review and contribute.  The draft standard can be downloaded for review at: https://www.apcointl.org/standards/call-to-action-review-a-comment.html. Comments must be submitted by January 26, 2015 to [email protected] and should include the name of the standard, line number in question, existing text, and proposed resolution.