Page 112 - Security Today, July/August 2019

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campuslifesecurity.com | JULY/AUGUST 2019
Making Security Inclusive
School for deaf, blind students counter security challenges by integ
rating disparate technologies
I
magine a crisis hits right where you are: a natural disaster, active shooting, gas leak or other emergency that puts you at risk for harm. You notice the commotion around you, but can’t fig-
ure out what is going on, or what to do. It’s a scenario blind, deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences know well—segments that are particularly vulnerable and underserved during emergencies.
How do you deliver time-sensitive instructions to audiences who may not see, hear or understand routine communication formats? What’s more, how do you do so instantly when people under your care have just moments to react?
Leaders at the Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind (CSDB) and their coun- terparts at the American School for the Deaf (ASD) have found uncommon ways to tackle this predicament, leveraging tools they already had.
Defying Conventions
Kevyn Brown, recently retired from his role as facilities manager at CSDB, remembers the impact of the Columbine High School shooting, just one hour’s drive from CSDB’s campus in Colorado Springs.
“We realized we had to find a better way to communicate with deaf and blind students, instantly and simultaneously,” Brown said. “Some schools were using a buddy system, so if you were deaf, you buddied up with a teach- er next to you. We were never comfortable with that.”
Other schools used lighted tower stacks, with red lights signaling an emergency.
“We felt that was crazy,” Brown said. “There shouldn’t be codes, secrets or things that stu- dents and staff have to memorize.”
Brown recalls one school that employed the phrase: “Mr. Johnson is in the hallway,” as code for an emergency. Brown asked their security team what would happen if an actual Mr. Johnson showed up one day and stood in the hallway. They hadn’t consid- ered that possibility.
CSDB had an added challenge of being a combined campus, serving both deaf and blind students. In Brown’s eyes, an adequate solution would enable CSDB to reach all audiences at a moment’s notice, with infor- mation that was instantly comprehensible,
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