DAISY and Emergency Preparedness

Phuket Declaration on Disaster Preparedness for Persons with Disabilities

We, participants of the Second International Conference on Disaster Preparedness for Persons with Disabilities, assembled on the twelfth and thirteenth of May 2009, at Millennium Patong Beach Resort Hotel, Phuket, Thailand:

1. Recognize the needs for ongoing efforts to achieve disability-inclusive disaster preparedness by all means including through knowledge-based solutions, combining the strength of standard-based accessible ICTs and traditional/local knowledge and through full and effective participation of persons with diverse types of disabilities;
2. Reaffirm the spirit of the Phuket Declaration on Tsunami Preparedness for Persons with Disabilities, especially with regard to [serious meaningful full] implementation of the Biwako Millennium Framework (BMF), World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA), Tampere Convention and other relevant instruments;
3. Strongly committed to foster networking and partnership environment among disability sector, ICT sector, disaster preparedness/management sector and international development sector while reaching out for greater collaboration with other sectors, including policy makers, local governments and local communities, researchers and other relevant interested parties to turn the spirit, principles and demands for disability-inclusive disaster preparedness into reality;
4. Resolve among us to form a collaborative network under the flagship of Phuket Initiative toward Disability-inclusive Disaster Preparedness.
5. Hereby we agreed to establish a working group to formulate a strategy and implementation plan of the declaration.

Reasonable Accommodations for Equal Participation of Everybody in Disaster Mitigation with Special Reference to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Presentation by Hiroshi Kawamura

OTHER RESOURCES:

• Markku T Häkkinen IDRC 2010 Red Chair Statement: Summary of the Session: "ICT in Disaster Preparedness and Response" [YouTube video]
• Disaster Preparedness for Vulnerable Populations: Determining Effective Strategies for Communicating Risk, Warning, and Response by Helen T. Sullivan, Markku T. Häkkinen

Information about Accessible Multimedia, including DAISY and Emergency Preparedness can be found on pages 28 - 30.

• Delivering Accessible Wireless Emergency Alerts, Markku T. Hakkinen, Campus Environment: Communicating Critical Information using Mobile Phones to Populations with Special Needs
• New Zealand Government has a webpage that contains useful information on the natural disasters that can happen in New Zealand and provides advice on how to be better prepared: This resource is available in a range of formats, including mp3 files, e-text, DAISY talking books, audio CDs and cassettes, and Braille. For further information on how you can access the various formats, please contact the DAISY Consortium member Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind.