Patent ID: 8149995

Claim:
A method comprising: storing, in non-transitory computer readable medium, a first set of contact paths for a first user, wherein the first set of contact paths includes a first contact path associated with a voice-based terminal and a second contact path associated with a text-based terminal; storing, in non-transitory computer readable medium, an order of use associated with contact paths in the first set of contact paths; storing, in non-transitory computer readable medium, a second set of contact paths for the first user, the second set of contact paths being different from the first set of contact paths, wherein the second set of contact paths is to be used when providing to the first user an emergency notification and the first set of contact paths is to be used when providing the first user a non-emergency notification; storing, in non-transitory computer readable medium, an order of use associated with contact paths in the second set of contacts paths; receiving, from a second user, a notification message including text, wherein the notification message is to be broadcast to at least the first user; receiving, from the second user, an instruction to broadcast the notification message to at least the first user as a non-emergency notification; in response to the received instruction to broadcast the notification message as a non-emergency notification, accessing the stored first set of contact paths; transmitting the notification message text to the text-based terminal using the second contact path; converting the notification message text to speech via a text-to-speech module; and transmitting the speech to the voice-based terminal using the first contact path.