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Inclusive ICTs for Disaster and Emergency Preparedness for Persons with Disabilities and those with Specific Needs

G3ICT / ITU


Session 229

09:00–10:45, Monday, 12 June 2017 Popov Room 2, ITU Tower Captioning Thematic Workshop

Remote Participation

Virtual Meeting Room Recording Webcast
Remote Participation Information

6  Documents 

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The use of ICTs can play a key role to provide early warning for emergencies and eminent disasters which can help prevent injury and loss of life. The use of ICTs is critical also in Disaster Relief.  ITU has had experience in a number of important activities to address natural disasters, as in 2010 where ITU deployed satellite communications to Haiti after a hurricane. ITU provided High-speed data capability to assist in applying telemedicine and overall humanitarian effort focusing on and in particular to disaster relief.  Most importantly this enabled people to also communicate to relatives, friends, and the outside world with news and to ask for assistance. Without ICTs it will be more difficult to deploy disaster relief but also disaster and emergency preparedness. It should be highlighted that, without any implementation of accessible ICT measures for early warning and evacuation, persons with disabilities will most likely perish. 

However, even now in 2017, persons with disabilities and persons with specific needs are still the most susceptible to injury and loss of life than their non-disabled counterparts. This is, due to multiple reasons, including the lack of accessibility evacuation plans, communication to and the training of first responders. It is important for governments as well, to utilize ICTs in an accessible manner for persons with disabilities, and to those providing emergency and medical services.

Within ITU-T there are ongoing studies for both emergency preparedness, disaster relief and accessibility to multimedia systems and services for persons with disabilities.  There are work items that cover emergency and disaster preparedness using accessible ICTs for Persons with Disabilities and those with specific needs, with the participation of experts from the communities of persons with disabilities.

This workshop will address the urgent needs of ICT accessibility for persons with disabilities and persons with specific needs in emergency situations, the ongoing work and study in this area worldwide, and discuss a step by step way forward towards 2025.

Moderator

Ms Andrea Saks, G3ict, Chairman of ITU-T JCA-AHF

Speakers/Panellists

  • Ms. Nirmita Narasimhan, Policy Director, Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), India
  • Ms Marcie Roth, President and CEO, Inclusive Emergency Management Strategies (IEMS) LLC / Former Director of Office of Disability Integration and coordination, US Department of Homeland Security/FEMA (Emergency services)
  • Mr Hiroshi Kawamura, President of the Daisy Consortium
  • Mr Masahito Kawamori, Rapporteur of ITU-T Q26/16 (Accessibility to multimedia systems and services), Project professor of Keio University, Japan
  • Mr Hiroshi Ota, Advisor for ITU-T Study Group 15 (Networks, Technologies and Infrastructures for Transport, Access and Home), ITU-TSB

Session's link to WSIS Action Lines

  • AL C3 logo C3. Access to information and knowledge
  • AL C4 logo C4. Capacity building
  • AL C7 e-Env logo C7. ICT Applications: E-environment

The workshop will directly address the urgent needs to take an appropriate measures to implement accessible ICT to provide information and knowledge to persons with disabilities and persons with specific needs (C3).

It will also aim at raising awareness of the importance of training on accessible ICT disaster / emergency preparedness for emergency service providers, and others those who can aid persons with/without disabilities to save lives in an emergency situation (C4).

 

Session's link to Sustainable Development Process

  • Goal 3: Good health and well-being logo Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all
  • Goal 11: Sustainable cities and communities logo Goal 11: Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable

The objective of the workshop is to raise awareness of the importance of immediate action to take appropriate measures to save lives of persons with disabilities in an emergency situation (Goal 3).

Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable is a basic requirement to achieve an inclusive society for all, including persons with disabilities (Goal 11).

 

Documents

Captioning_229.pdf Kawamura_12_June_2017_WSIS_Forum.pdf Nirmita_Narasimhan-12_June_2017.pdf TSB-Hiroshi-OTA-disaster-relief-06-2017-r1.pdf WSIS-_ROTH.pdf wsis-kawamori-12_June_2017.pdf

Links

Link to this session