Michele Cooke and Colleagues Studying Earthquake Preparedness in Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community

Content

When a large earthquake strikes, the ShakeAlert early warning system prompts organizations to send alerts to mobile devices in California, Oregon, and Washington, targeting areas likely to experience intense shaking. 

However, these alerts often fail to reach members of the deaf and hard of hearing (DHH+) community, leaving them at a heightened risk compared to hearing individuals. Historical data highlights this disparity: during the 1995 Kobe earthquake in Japan, the fatality rate among Deaf individuals was more than four times higher than that of hearing individuals, according to the Kobe Deaf Association.

To address this troubling disparity, a team of Deaf scientists—including Michele Cooke, a professor and the associate department head for professional development in the College of Natural Sciences's Department of Earth, Geographic, and Climate Sciences—has been interviewing members of the DHH+ community about their experiences with earthquake early warning systems. They shared their findings on December 10 at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Annual Meeting 2024 in Washington, D.C.

In an interview with Eos, Cooke explained how inclusion and accessibility can play a role in this disparity:

"Many DHH+ people experience 'dinner table syndrome,' a term that describes the isolation and exclusion that occur when DHH+ people surrounded by hearing people are excluded from conversations. This routine exclusion leads to gaps in knowledge about all kinds of important information, including earthquake preparedness information. Earthquake trainings that occur in schools are not always accessible to DHH+ students, either, said Michele Cooke, a structural geologist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a coauthor on the new study who is deaf."

— Eos

Click here to read more in Eos.