Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!decwrl!wuarchive!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: roy@phri.nyu.edu (Roy Smith) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: E911 Service: Data From The Horse's Mouth Message-ID: <10119@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 25 Jul 90 16:09:13 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Organization: Public Health Research Institute, New York City Lines: 28 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 516, Message 5 of 9 In <10075@accuvax.nwu.edu> Tom Neff writes: > Nevertheless, it's dehumanizing and a waste of time making the > distraught caller recite everything from scratch when there's already > information up on the screen. I don't think worrying about dehumanizing somebody enters into the equation when a house is on fire or somebody is being held up at gunpoint. Besides, it's a lot easier to just say "Yes" to every question than to actually supply information yourself. I suspect that a frantic caller would just keep saying "Yes", regardless of whether the information the E911 operator was trying to confirm was indeed correct or not. We have a sizeable number of people around here who don't speak English very well, or at all. They tend to just say "Yes" to whatever you ask them. Ever see the movie Rain Man? There is a bit near the end where Dustin Hoffman (playing an autistic adult) is being interviewed to see whether he wants to stay "on the outside" with his brother or go back to the institution. He appears moderately lucid and rational, yet it turns out that all he's doing is just saying "Yes" to every question put to him. Roy Smith, Public Health Research Institute 455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016 roy@alanine.phri.nyu.edu -OR- {att,cmcl2,rutgers,hombre}!phri!roy