Disaster Preparedness for the Forgotten Ones: People with Print Disability
By: Vashkar Vattacharya Programme Officer, Young Power in Social Action (YPSA) DAISY Focal Person, Bangladesh
Bangladesh is a rural-prominent developing country of South East Asia located on the northern shore of the Bay of Bengal on a small land of 147,570 sq. km. With it's current population of over 150 million people, it is the most densely populated country of the world. In addition to the above, Bangladesh is also one of the most disaster prone countries of the world. It is situated in the world's hazard belts and is subject to natural disasters like floods, droughts, cyclones, earthquakes, windstorms, and tidal waves. The major natural disasters that occur periodically in this region are largely due to climatic and seismic factors. Out of this 150 million population, around 50% are people with print disability. The term 'Print Disability' refers to inability in accessing information in print format - in other words, inability to read and write. At one hand, it is caused due to their lack of access to education/literacy, and on the other hand, some of the country's indigenous communities have no written form of their oral language. Either way, it restricts their access to information (timely and in accessible format), which in turn makes them more vulnerable during natural disasters.
Digital Accessible Information System (DAISY) is already a proven means to assist people with print disability (along with people with visual impairdness) to access disaster information in a format that is both easy accessible and usable. It enables production and organizing of information by combining a variety of format i.e. audio, text and graphics. As part of the DAISY Consortium, we've already prepared four (4) DAISY books to address the issue of disaster preparedness. One of these books is in the indigenous 'Tripura' language. Tripura is the name of an indigenous community as well as their oral language. The other three books are prepared in Bengali language particularly targeted towards assisting the people with print disability with pre, during and post disaster information.
Yet, a lot more needs to be done. Only a multi-stakeholder approach involving the state, public, private sector altogether can lead us to our destined aspiration.