CIVIC-FA Track B: Bridging the Gap between Essential Emergency Resources and Services and the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community in Monroe County NY: A Geospatial-Visual Approach

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This NSF Civic Innovation Challenge (CIVIC) funded project will identify and bridge specific gaps in essential emergency resources and services for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (DHH) community in Monroe County, New York, where Rochester is home to the largest per capita population of DHH people in the country. Project goals include assessing emergency service gaps for the DHH, creating, and evaluating emergency communication tools, developing educational materials for public safety professionals, and building pathways for the DHH to enter the emergency management STEM workforce and volunteer efforts. All project goal outcomes have been designed to be scaled nationally and sustained. Results will be generalizable to other community contexts with special needs populations such as such as deaf refugees and non-English speakers beyond Monroe County for broader project national impact and legacy, as one in eight people in the U.S. experience hearing loss. The focus on using geospatial technology will enhance STEM education for persons with disabilities, and overall national security will benefit from enhancing the disaster resilience of persons with disabilities. Scientific outcomes spanning multiple disciplines will inform and contribute knowledge to fields such as geographic information science, disaster management studies, disability studies, human-computer interaction and user experience, and emergency management pedagogy. Products such as geospatial mapping tools, communication booklets, and educational modules for emergency management professionals will become part of the broader ecosystem of national security and defense within the United States. The project represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform emergency management for the DHH through the incorporation of relevant DHH community groups, deaf academic researchers, and local, state, and national PSPublic Service organizations ranging from local emergency management to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).Issues related to the DHH and emergency management cycle have received little attention from emergency management researchers and limited discussion in academic literature. The main research questions for this project include the following: R1: What are the spatial relationships between the DHH community and hazards that may reveal specific gaps in emergency services for the DHH? R2: What are the messaging and communication needs of the DHH community during all phases of the emergency management cycle? R3: What pedagogical practice is needed for education and workforce development of emergency management practitioners on the needs of the DHH community and the inclusion of DHH community members in emergency management training? For R1, the research team intends to create and evaluate the nation's first deaf community hazard mapping geospatial toolkit called ‘Deaf Map’ to empower DHH communities to identify, characterize, map, and communicate community hazards with PS agencies. For R2, the team intends to create and evaluate a communication booklet for PS officials to communicate with DHH. In addition, a prototype device allowing DHH persons to receive emergency notifications in non-sound formats (visual/haptic) will be beta tested. For R3, the team intends to create and evaluate an education module designed for hearing PS professionals to understand DHH culture and challenges emergencies, develop an educational framework to enable DHH students to enter the STEM workforce, and create the nation's first ever Deaf Community Emergency Response Team (D-CERT).This project is in response to the Civic Innovation Challenge program—Track B. Bridging the gap between essential resources and services & community needs—and is a collaboration with Department of Energy, Department of Homeland Security, and the National Science Foundation.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.