Following a multistate demand letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in November 2025 led by New York Attorney General Letitia James, the FCC has published a long-delayed Multilingual Alerts Order in the Federal Register requiring the expansion of cell phone emergency alerts to include American Sign Language and 13 additional languages.
Wireless Emergency Alerts are short, text message-like alerts sent by government agencies through cell carriers to warn the public of imminent threats, including severe weather, natural disasters, missing persons, and other public safety emergencies. These alerts are among the most widely used public warning tools in the U.S., but for years were issued only in English, with Spanish only supported more recently.
Wireless carriers now have until June 12, 2028, to update their systems to support multilingual alerts in Arabic, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), French, German, Haitian Creole, Hindi, Italian, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, and Vietnamese, as well as American Sign Language. This expansion will benefit an estimated 1.3 million New Yorkers statewide who are not proficient in either English or Spanish and will now be able to access critical, life-saving information during emergencies.
鈥淭his is a profound victory for the millions of New Yorkers and families across the country who will no longer be left without guidance during emergencies and natural disasters,鈥 said Attorney General James in a statement. 鈥淣o one鈥檚 ability to protect themselves and their loved ones should depend on the language they speak. I am proud to have stood with my fellow attorneys general and advocates nationwide to push this rule forward. This language expansion will save lives.鈥
Office of the New York State Attorney (1/21/26)