Thursday: Building Resilient Deaf Communities
We are building the capacity of D/deaf communities on emergency preparedness and response to mitigate disaster risks and reduce D/deaf communities’ vulnerability in the face of disasters. Sign up for sign language rights by demonstrating partnerships between D/deaf communities and emergency responders, who play a crucial role in providing timely and accessible information during emergencies.
Climate change, a pressing global issue that has been unfolding over many years, is now leading to a rapid increase in disasters such as flooding and earthquakes worldwide. The time for action is now.
The most significant impact to us – D/deaf people, D/deaf with disabilities and disabled people living in the community where radio, social media, and even neighbours telling us there is a bad storm coming now without sign language communication method. This lack of accessible information puts us at a severe disadvantage during emergencies, making it crucial to address this issue urgently.
Recently, there have been heavy losses in North Island from landslips, bridges washed away, and many small communities trapped between two towns, flooding over farmlands and the city. The worst disaster area was Coromandel, where many disabled older adults and disabled people were trapped due to the main highway bridge being washed away by the massive landslips. Local suppliers from Hamilton and Auckland could not deliver them food and medical supplies. Still, the missing bridge forced delivery suppliers to travel a long way around to reach the distance. There were no power and landlines available for them to know what happened when the supplies reached them and who they could contact someone in need of help.
Today, the Civil Defence of New Zealand is making more progress in making NZSL videos and plain English language with pictures (Easy to Read) for the website and social media. I had a couple of visitors from the Civil Defence in the past in Hamilton, and we are working with the City Council from time to time.
Here is one of the examples, but I noted it was an old one, and it requires improvement. https://www.civildefence.govt.nz/resources/news-and-events/news-and-events/to-sign-is-to-be-seen
Here is one of the links – https://getready.govt.nz/alternate-formats
In my local farming and Horticulture community, we made a contact detail list of neighbours; there is a local community hall along with HeartSine Defibrillator, which is based on the Civil Defence meeting point place.
Life in Eureka 