Context, Uncertainty, and Interdependence: Crisis Informatics and Severe Weather Risk Communication for People with Visual Impairments

The challenges faced by individuals with visual impairments during severe weather events are poorly understood by prevailing approaches in the fields of risk communication and crisis informatics. To develop a stronger foundation for HCI research and design in this area, we conducted interviews with adults with varying forms of visual impairment about their recent experiences during weather emergencies and the role of digital technologies in supporting actions related to disaster preparedness and safety. We draw on our findings as well as disaster research and critical disability studies to make three arguments to help orient future work. First, despite the challenges involved, efforts to improve risk communication for this audience must account for the social and infrastructural contexts that shape individuals’ embodied experiences of severe weather. Furthermore, risk communication efforts must carefully balance interventions aimed at supporting recipient independence with collective or social strategies to support the goals of disability justice. Second, we suggest the potential for risk communications to nurture interdependent networks of infromation sharing and support. Finally, our study suggests the need to significantly reframe longstanding assumptions regarding the form and characteristics of uncertainty that designers should attend to as part of efforts to improve severe weather risk communication.