It was a tiny pop quiz in the midst of a comprehensive examination.
First Responders reaching to the Deaf community
During last November’s nationwide test of FEMA’s public warning system, an action research study (#DEMX) was conducted to assess the communication potential of social media. The goal was to find a way to bridge the longstanding divide between “people of the eye” who use American Sign Language and emergency responders who rely on their ears. From the Deaf point-of-view, these “hearing people” are dependent on sound.
A dedicated group of social media pioneers keeps pushing the envelope of public communication within the field of emergency management. Meanwhile, the American Deaf community remains essentially neglected despite generations of struggle and decades-old accessibility rights legislation.
in all of the years of researching and taking courses / training in crisis communications – one group has not been mentioned as much as others. This audience group is the deaf community. ~ Karen Freberg
Tweeting against Historical Trends
One popular social media tool for emergency warnings is Twitter. It is unclear how many Deaf people know about this timely and current source of information about emergencies of all kinds. Meteorologists are using Twitter to warn populations in their local media markets about serious weather events, and some emergency responders are using Twitter as part of crisis communication and disaster response. Figures 1 & 2 show a key result from the #DEMX experiment run during the November 2011 national “Emergency Alert System” test. Overall, although information about the Twitter-based #DEMX test spread, there was very little crossover between the two groups: Deaf citizens shared information within the Deaf community, and emergency management planners and responders shared the information within their community. This leads to a conclusion regarding how hard it is to stimulate conversation between communities who have an (apparently entrenched) history of ineffective communication.
However, in the course of a short campaign, the #DEMX Tweetstream garnered 163 unique users, and the Prezi explaining the idea (in English and ASL) got 1,500 hits! The information spread, but it was decontextualized from the relationships that need to be built among First Responders and members of the signing Deaf community.
Strategy (Action Research Methodology)
Few Deaf Tweeters "cross over" to the First Responder tweetstream
An already existing Twitter community using the hashtag, #SMEM (for social media emergency management), was introduced to a new hashtag, #DEMX (for deaf emergency management of variable “x”). The #DEMX hashtag was invented for this experiment, so it had no pre-existing user base. A late-deafened blogger and tweeter, Joyce Edmiston (@expressivehandz), spearheaded spreading the #DEMX hashtag among her followers. Using a text analysis software tool, we were able to track the spread of news about this social media experiment in both communities and break down the results.
Findings: A small but dedicated leading edge
In the nine days of monitoring (from November 2-11, 2011, with the test day on November 9), the 163 users in the #DEMX tweetstream gathered 765 tweets, while the #SMEM tweetstream garnered 5,759 tweets, generated by 1,135 unique users. We were interested in the tweets that included both hashtags. Barely 1/2 of 1% of #DEMX tweets included the #SMEM hashtag; and only .01% of #SMEM tweets included the #DEMX hashtag. Research team member Joe Delfino of DiscoverText writes, “Unfortunately, the mass crossover of Tweets that we had envisioned did not occur.” By “drilling down” into the data, however, we were able to generate some findings that, combined with knowledge of the historical basis of the overall challenge, confirms hypotheses worth testing in another round of Twitter-based action research.
4:1 Ratio Hearing to Deaf
In the #DEMX tweetstream, there were 26 unique users who included the #SMEM hashtag. After eliminating tweets from members of the research team there were a total of 28 tweets from 23 unique users. Of these 23 unique users, 20 are not deaf – they are hearing people associated in one way or another with emergency management. Only three deaf tweeters “crossed over” to the emergency management community tweetstream. Some reasons for this terribly low percentage are explored below.
In the #SMEM tweetstream, there were 17 unique users who included the #DEMX hashtag, again, after eliminating tweets by research team members, tweets including both hashtags were sent by 13 unique users: 9 hearing and 4 deaf, repeating the pattern in which more hearing people reached out toward the Deaf community than Deaf people reached back to the “Hearing” world of emergency management.
Concerning? Yes. Disheartening? No!
Obviously these sample sizes are too small for statistical significance. However, they do suggest some generalizations that could be formulated into concrete hypotheses and studied on a more robust scale. One issue involves whether the Deaf American linguistic minority of American Deaf Culture can be convinced that the dominant culture actually cares. In promoting this action research project, I created an online presentation, Deaf Eye on Emergency!, which describes the context of the national emergency alert system test using visual imagery, written English and several videoclips of commentary using American Sign Language. The presentation garnered over 1500 views during the nine-day research window and 1,846 as of this posting. English translations of the ASL clips are available now so that non-signers can know and respond to the explanations and ideas expressed in the video clips.
Creating New Relationships
Although good efforts and success stories do circulate, there is no commonly-recognized and widely-used medium of communication (yet) that satisfactorily mediates the sight-sound perceptual distinction between “People of the Eye” and “Hearing” people. Written English and spreading more information are perceived as “the answer.” While both of these strategies are necessary, without an interaction strategy to cultivate and redefine the inherited perception of neglect, systemic improvements in Deaf preparedness and contribution to emergency response efforts cannot occur.
An Interaction Strategy for Emergency Preparedness
Individual Deaf people often experience being told to wait while someone tries to figure out how to communicate with them, and then (usually) delivered sub-par and minimal information rather than being fully engaged as intelligent and competent human beings who can help resolve aspects of the situation, whatever it is. Historically, the legacies of discrimination and prejudice have convinced many members of Deaf culture that Hearing people really do not care about them. Serious effort needs to be strategically planned and exercised in order to overcome this unfortunate dynamic. It can be done, and if done well, crucial skills, knowledge, and benefits of resilience will flow from the Deaf community into the larger fabric of American society.
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by Steph on January 27th, 2012 at 8:09 am
Tags: Deaf stuff, Interpreting, social justice
January 27th, 2012 at 7:02 pm
I am much less guilty of not caring about the deaf community as I am guilty of assuming someone far better qualified than me is taking care of them in emergency situations. “There are agencies for that” type mentality. Yes, it could be argued I don’t care. But more often than not, I don’t trust myself to do the appropriate caring for.
Thank you for the reminder.
February 2nd, 2012 at 8:02 pm
This statement is of enormous significance: ” Historically, the legacies of discrimination and prejudice have convinced many members of Deaf culture that Hearing people really do not care about them. Serious effort needs to be strategically planned and exercised in order to overcome this unfortunate dynamic. It can be done, and if done well, crucial skills, knowledge, and benefits of resilience will flow from the Deaf community into the larger fabric of American society.”
Working with IRAA Emergency Preparedness the Western Mass model has been to reach out to community based organizations and train their staff on personal and family EP with the objective of increasing resilence of the work force that will also implement training, conversations, models for consumers.
I would like to invite People of the Eye, to consider joining a Medical Reserve Corps unit in your community/region. We are the folks who staffed the shelters during the 2011 emergency/disaster events (ya, plural!). People of the Eye would benefit from the training for MRC volunteers and your skills would assist ASL and other consumers in a shelter or other public health response. http://www.wmmrc.org. Thank you for sharing your gifts Stephanie.
February 18th, 2012 at 4:04 am
Kathleen,
Thank you for extending the invitation to the Deaf community to become part of Emergency Response efforts!
The challenge will be – as it has always been – paying for interpreters. There are many important reasons to use professional interpreters (trained and certified by RID-NAD), including:
1) so that Deaf trainees can benefit from the full details of instruction and
2) so that hearing (not deaf) trainees and instructors can learn how to use interpreters to build relationships with their future colleagues
3) so that Deaf and Hearing people can fully interact with each other during the training and thus build trust for communicating with each other during emergency response – when there may or may not be interpreters available all the time.
I would like to preempt the assumption that professional interpreters should volunteer for these trainings. That attitude is really insulting to Deaf people as well as to interpreters – the idea that interpreters should volunteer is based in assumptions that accessible communication is either an unaffordable luxury or possible only as an act of charity.
My apologies for the blunt and direct statement. There is nothing wrong with volunteering! The problem is how to design a language and communication system that can handle multilingualism and foster systemic resiliency. The answer is not only technical (no power = no technology). Interpreting occurs at the human social level, this requires the proactive integration of Interpreter Strike Teams throughout the Emergency Planning cycle, including the Incident Command Structure and beginning now, with mitigation.
February 18th, 2012 at 11:06 am
Respectfully,
Regarding your assertion that professional interpreters should not volunteer for these trainings, is in my opinion, no different than the many other highly skilled professionals who are volunteering for emergency preparedness training and working for no pay during emergency response. The invitation I extended was stated and intended with the spirit of outreach and mutual benefit. I stated that “People of the Eye would benefit from the training for MRC volunteers (e.g. 1. Personal and Family preparedness, 2. Incident Command System, 3. Psychological First Aid) and your skills would assist ASL and other consumers in a shelter or other public health response.”
As you know, I fight hard for professional recognition and commensurate compensation for women, and service providers….I practice what I preach and pay my staff well, continually advocating for the value of services. Easily, 30%-40% of my time is unpaid in any given year. I consider myself a highly educated, experienced and trained professional. During deployment last year, I worked over $4,200 unpaid hours (June), July ($3,000), August ($3,000) due to contract expiration and bureaucratic delays. If ASL interpreters want to venture into the world of EP, they need to be aware that uncompensated professional services are the norm rather than the exception. Just sayin!
There is value in this discussion with exploring if there is a middle ground for emergency preparedness, professional compensation, no-cost EP training and volunteerism.