Accessibility of multilingual information in cascading crises

Abstract

In the wake of a disaster, failures in various systems are bound to cause temporary impairments and exacerbate permanent ones. Non-inclusiveness in planning tends to prevent people with disabilities, as well as culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities, from standard rescue and relief responses, which not only goes against universal human rights but may amplify the crisis into cascading effects. This chapter explores the notion of accessibility as a form of risk and vulnerability reduction, response and mitigation. We argue that producing information on disaster preparedness, response and recovery with accessibility and cultural and linguistic diversity in mind can help reduce the vulnerability usually associated with the aforementioned communities, as well as potentially benefit both the general population and the international humanitarian community. Additionally, we contend that designing accessibility-compliant (digital) content can both mitigate the effects of limited or malfunctioning communication infrastructure resulting from the disaster, and facilitate the production of multilingual information by reducing the time, technology and human efforts required for the translation process, which are often scarce in a crisis environment. Finally, we highlight the need for crisis translators to be more disability-aware and accessibility-informed to ensure an effective communication between all stakeholders in disaster situations.