The Great East Japan Earthquake - Support Activities and Proposals by the All Japan Association of Hard of Hearing and Late-Deafened People
All Japan Association of Hard of Hearing and Late-Deafened People
1. Summary of the response immediately following the earthquake
In addition to causing substantial damage in Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima, the Great East Japan Earthquake had a major impact on our hard of hearing friends in neighboring regions such as Aomori Prefecture and Kanto area. Even in areas where people's homes were not damaged, there were problems such as transportation and other systems being thrown into chaos because of continuing aftershocks, the nuclear accident, planned power outages, etc.; concern about food and drink being radioactively contaminated; and planned power outages at night, which are terrifying for hard-of-hearing people living alone.
It is impossible to imagine the difficulties that persons affected by the disaster experienced under these conditions.
Immediately following the earthquake, the All Japan Association of Hard of Hearing and Late-Deafened People (Zennancho) launched a disaster response headquarters and worked to collect and disseminate information related to the earthquake. Current conditions continue to be covered in the blog.
Zennancho requested that organizations guarantee equal access to information on the disaster for persons with hearing impairments, and these included one to Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) to broadcast earthquake related news with closed captioning and one to Tokyo Power Electric Company to make public the fax number for inquiries regarding planned power outages.
For three days from the evening of April 1, when it was possible to ensure the safety of work in the disaster area to a certain extent, Zennancho staff provided support several times, as a primary support activity, starting with visiting the associations in Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima, which sustained major damage, holding discussions with the local response headquarters, and delivering supplies (hearing aid batteries, writing boards, etc.) and donations, .
Among member associations, Miyagi/Sendai Chuto Shiccho Nanchosha Kyokai (NPO Miyagi-Sendai Association of Late-Deafened and Hard of Hearing Persons undertook particularly remarkable work. Immediately after the earthquake, they launched a response headquarters, confirmed the safety of members even though communication networks were down, conducted surveys regarding various issues including conditions after the disaster, and provided support. Focuses was placed on efforts that employed IT, such as creating a contact network of members in the disaster area and supporters, including Zennancho, using smartphones provided by Softbank.
With the cooperation of PLUSVoice Corporation, which was working on various fronts including phone relay service in Sendai, Zennancho opened a local response office in the company.
Iwate-ken Chuto Shiccho/nanchosha Kyokai (Iwate Hard of Hearing and Late-Deafened People Association) had a hard time confirming the safety of its members. Many people were impacted by infrastructure related problems such as power outages, and making contact by fax was also initially difficult. Since some members required outside support, such as mental health care due to stress and problems related to daily life, Ikoi No Hiroba, an informal social gatherings for members, was held several times with support from Zennancho headquarters and specialists.
As for the Fukushima-ken Chuto Shiccho/nanchosha Kyokai (Fukushima Hard of Hearing and Late-Deafened People Association), it struggled to make contact with members and continued to be unable to undertake organized activities because the whereabouts of many directors, members, and speech-to-text interpreters were unknown as they were staying in various emergency shelters due to not only substantial damage to houses caused by the disaster but also the nuclear accident.
Power outages, people being forced to evacuate, and other factors made it even more difficult for individuals to obtain necessary information. There were also concerns that the impact of the nuclear accident would persist for some time.
2. Zennancho's response
After ascertaining conditions in the disaster area, Zennancho provided necessary information related to guaranteeing information accessibility for persons with disabilities. While respecting the activities of local associations, Zennancho moved forward with support activities in collaboration with local governments, the NPO Zenkoku Yoyakuhikki Mondai Kenkyukai (a national association of speech-to-text interpreters) and other disaster response headquarters, particularly for areas requiring support for daily life.
Various supplies, including hearing aid batteries, “Ear Symbol” items (particularly, a card in train pass case worn around the neck), and writing boards were supplied for persons with hearing impairments.
Zennancho strongly called on the government to provide persons with hearing impairments with information in a visual format - in particular, for organizations such as the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and NHK to add closed captioning to broadcasts. Working with the government and various industries such as hearing aid and cochlear implant manufacturers and related organizations, Zennancho is connecting local communities to information.
As for activities targeting local associations, Zennancho holds fund-raising drives to support areas impacted by the disaster, provides mental health care for members, and issues material on support news.
Persons with hearing impairments from the three prefectures affected by the disaster, even those who were not members, were invited to the Zennancho Aomori Conference held in October of last year, and transportation (by rental buses, bullet trains, etc.) was provided. This was done to provide care through social exchanges among fellow hard-of-hearing people. Including the almost one hundred people from the disaster area, there were 385 participants, making the meeting a great success. There were several workshops, and all of them dealt with issues related to the earthquake.
Large donations were received from both parties in Japan (Nihon Cochlear Co Ltd., SONAR K.K., JiritsuCom, Inc., clubs for speech-to-text interpreters, and parties overseas (The Swedish Association of Hard of Hearing People, Hearing Loss Association of America, MED-EL chairman Dr. Ingeborg Hochmair). Warm support was also provided by Cochlear Ltd. and Rayovac Inc.
3. Support over the long run
Later, support activities focused on counseling support, including that related to mental health care, daily life, and work. Efforts are being undertaken in collaboration with the Central Headquarters for Disaster Relief for Deaf People.
As for donations, Zennancho independently collected about 17.69 million yen. Since the disaster hit an unprecedented large area and number of people, getting the Donation Distribution Committee to reach agreement on how to distribute the donations took longer than expected. There was the view that donations should be distributed to everyone as quickly as possible, but the committee racked its brains over how to distribute the donation and how to explain it, and although regrettable, some of the funds were not distributed until the new fiscal year.
Psychological impact of the disaster was taken into consideration when deciding on the distribution of donations. Although not sustaining clear physical damage, some people suffered because of life at emergency shelters and neighbors and friends being scattered in various facilities; therefore, everyone received an equal share of donations. The fund-raising drive ended in March, but some people are still making donations.
Zennancho has called on the government and broadcast companies to take various steps such as developing information in a visual format and is working on problems related to the disaster particularly ones of a national-wide nature.
The government initially planned for people to stay in temporary housing for two years, but that has now grown to three years, and it looks like Zennancho will undertake support activities for an extended period.
Zennancho would like to move forward with its activities after hearing what people need - for example, peer support for persons with hearing impairments, continuing counseling support, accelerating the spread of speech-to-text interpreters.
At the end of June, International Federation for Hard of Hearing (IFHOH) World Congress 2012 was held in Bergen, Norway, and at the conference Zennancho expressed its appreciation for all the international support and cooperation. It was thought that an important token of appreciation would be to use an international venue to inform people of the information handicap that persons with hearing impairments face, and this was reported on by Miyagi/Sendai Chuto Shiccho Nanchosha Kyokai Deputy Director Jo Matsuzaki and others through various efforts including a parallel session report and poster presentation.
Even at the Eighteenth Welfare Conference of Hard of Hearing and Late-Deafened People in Saitama, held in Saitama-shi, December 1 - 3, 2012, a session on disaster issues was established, and the subcommittee discussed responses related to future earthquakes.
4. Proposals for the future
With the Great East Japan Earthquake, there was a feeling that we were also affected by the disaster, and this feeling was particularly strong in the Kanto area, which neighbors the disaster areas. Looking at things as one's own problem provides opportunities to make various discoveries. There were three major characteristics of this earthquake.
(1) The disaster affected an unprecedented wide area because of the tsunami, and the area continues to be hit by aftershocks.
(2) There are power outages because of the nuclear accident and radioactive material is impacting people, drinks, and food.
(3) The disaster will last for some time for these various reasons.
The types of damage caused by disasters are not always the same. The response to the current disaster will not necessarily be appropriate in the future, but it is probably possible to bring together common aspects to the response for persons with hearing impairments.
The greatest thing we came to understand is that there is a limit to what can be done after the disaster strikes. Advanced preparations are probably important.
Among Zennancho member organizations, there was a need for each organization to conduct support activities while keeping an eye on conditions inside its own organization. Under such a circumstance they ended up taking reactive approaches.
In particular, persons with hearing impairments are described as information-handicapped people. The breakdown in the information infrastructure had a major impact on these people. When there is a power outage, it is impossible to make use of TV closed captioning, faxes, the Internet, and lighting, which is necessary to obtain information at night. There was also the problem of charging mobile phones, making it impossible to use them for long periods of time.
There were many people with hearing impairments who did not receive the tsunami warning, which affected whether they lived or died. As for national-level and regional-level problems, requests by national and regional organizations related to persons with hearing impairments can increase understanding and resolve some issues.
In this type of situation, it is important to not rely solely on contact methods using normal information infrastructure but to secure secondary and tertiary methods. This involves not relying on machines but stressing person-to-person contact. In other words, it is important to develop and maintain relationship with parties who will provide support.
