Report of the International Conference on Tsunami Preparedness of Persons with Disabilities in Thailand

Misako Nomura, Deputy Director, Information Center of JSRPD

International Conference on Tsunami Preparedness of Persons with Disabilities was held on January 11 and 12 in Phuket, Thailand where Tsunami happened on December 2004 and took the lives of many people. The conference was co-hosted by DAISY Consortium, Asia-Pacific Development Center on Disability (APCD), the Council of Disabled People of Thailand (CDPT), National Electronics and Computer Technology Center, Thailand (NECTEC), Thailand Association of the Blind (TAB Group), DAISY For All Project Thailand (DFA Thailand), Asian Disaster Preparedness Center and Thai Autism Vocational Center.

The purpose of this conference was to establish an international networking for Promotion of Tsunami Preparedness of Persons with Disabilities in the context of WSIS (United Nations World Summit on the Information Society) Plan of Action implementation by sharing information on the following.

1. Needs of Persons with Disabilities for Tsunami Preparedness with special attention to respective components of individual preparedness such as logical understanding on Tsunami, accessible communication channel for warning, and planned/confirmed evacuation route,
2. Best practices of Tsunami Preparedness promotion activities that meet the requirements of Persons with Disabilities,
3. On-going Tsunami Disaster Prevention/Mitigation initiatives at local/international level,
4. Initiatives of Bridging the Digital Divide in the area of Disaster Preparedness of Persons with Disabilities as the implementation of WSIS Plan of Actions,

There are about 30 participants from foreign countries and 70 participants from Thailand. Those people are involved in or concerned with digital opportunities in the area of Tsunami Preparedness of Persons with Disabilities including disability community, policy makers, experts, advocates. They actively participated in the discussion of how they can improve Tsunami Evacuation Plans around the world to meet the special needs of people including persons with disabilities, old people, patients, children, pregnant women, refugees, cultural/linguistic minorities, foreign travelers, etc.

The final session of the conference is the adoption of Phuket Declaration presented by Mr. Monthian Buntan and Mr. Hiroshi Kawamura who took the initiative in inclusion of disability issues in the WSIS official documents to address the digital opportunities; making the most of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) to solve the problems met by persons with disabilities.

This session was chaired by Mr. George Kerscher.

The following is the final text of the Phuket Declaration on Tsunami Preparedness for Persons with Disabilities

We, participants of the International Conference on Tsunami Preparedness for Persons with Disabilities, assembled on the eleventh and twelfth of January 2007, at Royal Phuket City Hotel, Phuket, Thailand, declare that:

Tsunami disasters can be prevented through:

1. sharing of knowledge and best practices on Tsunami and other disasters,
2. strong commitment and active participation for contribution of all stakeholders including in particular persons with disabilities to eliminate the loss of lives,
3. local community-based initiatives for disaster preparedness and
4. infrastructure building including Tsunami early warning system at all levels to disseminate timely disaster warning to all people concerned,
5. building of disability friendly infrastructure addressing accessibility issues in all phases of disaster management.

In a knowledge-based society, ICT development, which includes assistive technologies and universal design concept, will contribute to the success of disaster preparedness development that will meet the diverse needs of all people including those of persons with disabilities and other vulnerable people including women, children, old people, cultural minorities, tourists, etc. in the community.

Such ICT development should be based on internationally-recognized standards that are open, non-proprietary, and have proven track record of accessibility.

In commemoration of the Asian Tsunami 2004 and in support of WSIS action plan, Hyogo Frame Work of Action and Tampere Convention, we recommend that:

1. An educational/training center on Tsunami and other disaster preparedness should be established. All aspects of such center, including physical infrastructure and training materials, should be inclusive and accessible to persons with disabilities.
2. All stake holders should follow the principles of WSIS and UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to implement effective preparedness for Tsunami and other disasters.

All people attending the conference make sure that they could do some collaborative work to promote disaster preparedness for persons with disabilities. I hope more people and related agencies will join this network to work together to address this important issue.