U.S. test of national alerts on Oct. 4 at 2:20pm EDT (1820 UTC)

Fri Oct 6 18:58:14 UTC 2023

The Disability Advocacy Community has been extensively involved with 
CMAS/WEA since President Bush signed the WARN Act, passed by a republican 
house and republican senate, in 2006.

The dozens of disability groups helped design the sound and vibration 
cadence (which is different than EAS), and the policies for alerting.

Nation-wide testing (EAS) has been conducted since 2011.  And nation-wide 
testing (WEA) since 2014.  National tests were conducted almost every 
between 2011 and 2020, suspended during the pandemic.

The national tests are announced at least 60 days in advance by the FCC 
and FEMA. News media have multiple stories.  Most state and many local 
goverments also had notifications.

If you haven't been involved with the disability community for a decade, 
and your school office didn't notify special education teachers about the 
news releases and government advance notifications, perhaps that's room 
for improvement with local school communications.  Fire drills, tornado 
drills, etc. often involve loud sounds and flashing lights.