accessible emergency communications and social media carol dunn

Accessible Emergency Communications and Social

Media

Carol Dunn

Who am I?

Carol Dunn, CaroldnSeattle Area

Social Media is an opportunity

• Overcome communication barriers-if you try• Reach people ‘where they are’• Help set positive narrative• Help find out what is happening as it happens

But first

Biology in a Zero Sum World

Benjamin Asmusen

Increase your ‘we’

• Diversity in hiring

• Work together with groups in the community towards a shared goal.

Accessibility doesn’t just happen

• Add captions or transcript files to youtube videos

• Learn how to make accessible PDFs (or avoid PDFs)

• Resist the urge to add create a site that is primarily flash or silverlight

• Keep language short and clear• Build accessibility into your budget from the

beginning

Homework

• Think about what human factors contribute to harm in disasters:– Can’t get out of the way of a hazard in time

(proximity, mobility, awareness…)– Taken by surprise (awareness, immediacy,

language/literacy…)– Access to resources (awareness, economics,

marginalized..) • Awareness: attention redirected, working memory,

information in right format, new to area

Information providers: Does your ‘content’ help?

• Take the time to go through your public information thinking about how useful it is for individuals who navigate the world in different ways. – Sight, hearing, language comprehension, refocused

attention/memory, understanding of abstract, distrusting

– Online Screen Reader: http://tinyurl.com/WebAnywhereKY

Better yet:

• Go find people in your community who can tell you directly how well your information works for them.– Talk to them– Work with them

There are a lot of resources that can improve your outreach efforts

Useful websites: http://tinyurl.com/EnableKY

• Learning about your jurisdiction/target:– US Census, American Family Survey, MLA

Language Map– Google Earth– Parcel Maps, Public Records

Where to create content

• Visual: – Youtube, slideshare, pinterest, flickr, instagram,

Lockerz• Audio: youtube• Text based: blogger, wordpress, tumblr• Immediate: Facebook, Twitter, Google+,

How to Increase participation?

• Use social media to meet specific goals

• Reach out: share information about your internet goals offline: create cards with easy links to hand out when meeting people

• Gamification: example: Cheryl Bledsoe @Cherylble: 30 days 30 ways

Use More Cute Animals

Social Media in times of Crisis

Photo by bitboy

After a high stress trigger

• Most people will be experiencing:– Hyper-vigilance: intensely focused attention– Pattern seeking– Searching for a cause (tightening in group)– Inclined to take shortcuts– Willing to suspend disbelief: magical thinking– Compelled to act (maybe in a rash way)– Post event spike in feeling of vulnerability

How does this influence Communication?

Hyper-vigilance:

– Information Vacuum

• The higher the stakes, the more likely the official sources will grow very silent for the initial period to coordinate the message.

• The higher the stakes the more information the public needs to have

• The information vacuum will be filled, but not by whom you want.

Patterns Seeking

• Provide Context!– There is a good

chance some in the media and the general public are making jumps in logic that are wrong & don’t help

Changing/Tightening of ‘in group’/Inclined to take shortcuts

• Remember whom you need to communicate with-not just people who are easiest to reach.

• Post violence: Help protect whichever group is being singled out

Need to Act

• Help set a positive narrative: ask people to reach out and get information to others, to help their neighbors

• Provide guidance on what specifically is needed• Encourage fund raisers to say specifically how donations will

be used• Be ready in advance with a plan for a goods/volunteer flood

– Regional Catastrophic Disaster Coordination Plan –Volunteer & Donations Management Tool Kit http://tinyurl.com/donationtoolkit (pdf)

– Video: Volunteer Reception Center (FEMA) http://tinyurl.com/VolRC

A lot of useful tools related to

Situational Awareness

John Severin Cracked Magazine

Links at

• http://tinyurl.com/WebtoolsKY

Flickr mapped search

Youtube filters

bing social

Topsy

Tweets, Photos, Videos

GeoChirp

Tweetgrid.com

Social Media is an opportunity

• Overcome communication barriers-if you try• Reach people ‘where they are’• Help set positive narrative• Help find out what is happening as it happens

Thank You

• Carol Dunn• carol@2resilience.com• @caroldn• Links can be found at www.2resilience.com