Full paper version. Accessibility requirements of tsunami evacuation manuals; lessons learned from an on-site research in Urakawa, Japan

1. NAPSIPAG International Conference “Locked in Growth Patterns: Rethinking land management and
disasters for the post-2015 development agenda for the Asia Pacific”, 7th to 9th December 2013,Centre
for the Study of Law and Governance at Jawaharlal Nehru University
Accessibility requirements of tsunami
evacuation manuals; lessons learned from an
on-site research in Urakawa, Japan
Hiroshi Kawamura*, Mayu Hamada* and Ai Kawamura**
*Assistive Technology Development Organization
**EX Research Institute, Ltd
1. Pilot project for development of accessible scientific kowledge on tsunami and
skills for evacuation
Authorsshare the hypothesis that scientific knowledge on potential risks of tsunami
disasters and the best evacuation route is the prerequisite for survival of individuals
living in potential tsunami hit zones. Persons living with disabilities in the community
have difficulties inevacuation if access to knowledge on risks, early warning, evacuation
route, shelters and evacuation drills in the community are not guaranteed.
In order to tackle this issue, the research groupihas been developing accessible tsunami
evacuation manuals that meet requirements of everybody in the community since
2003in collaboration with key stakeholders of the Urakawa Town, located in the coastal
area of the most frequent earthquake zone in the North East Japan.Close collaborators
in Urakawa includes Bethel’s House, a mutual support group of 150 members including
those with severe psycho-social disabilities living in the community, autonomous groups
of community residents and the Town Authority.
2. North East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami
A magnitude 9.0 earthquake occurred off the Pacific coast of North East Japan at 14:46
JST (05:46 UTC) on 11thMarch 2011 was the most powerful known earthquake ever hit
Japan. The earthquake triggered tsunami which reached as high as 40 meters. As of 8th
November 2013, the Japanese National Police Agency confirmed 15,883 deaths and

2. NAPSIPAG International Conference “Locked in Growth Patterns: Rethinking land management and
disasters for the post-2015 development agenda for the Asia Pacific”, 7th to 9th December 2013,Centre
for the Study of Law and Governance at Jawaharlal Nehru University
2,651 people missing. We lost more than 1 million buildings. In addition, three nuclear
reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant complex melt down as a result
of the earthquake and tsunami. We are struggling with radio active substances still now.
On 11th March 2011 the Urakawa Town was attacked by 2.7 m tsunami which resulted
in US$3 million loss of propertiesbut there was no human casualties due to swift
evacuation from tsunami attacked zone.Members of the Bethel’s House including
members with severe psycho-social disabilities living in the community proved to be able
to showcase evacuation with confidence in their safety as a result of their scientific
knowledge acquired from accessible tsunami evacuation manual and evacuation skills
gained through their regular evacuation drills integrated into their social skill training
program.The Urakawa Town Authority praised the showcase evacuation as they were
deeply concerned with the reaction of the community when the Mayor issued evacuation
order. “Thanks to the first group of evacuees who knew accurate evacuation route with
confidence, people in the potential tsunami attack zone could easily start their
evacuation”, said the person in charge of disaster management of the Urakawa Town
Authority.
Figure 1.Urakwa Town 16:42 pm 11th March 2011 photographed by the Town Authority
3. Evaluation of 3 evacuation practices
Authors comparedtsunami evacuation practices on 11thMarch 2011 in 3 different areas
in North East Japan, Ishinomaki, Kamaishi and Urakawa,to identify key factors for
survival at community level with two indicators;1) knowledge on tsunami, shelterand
evacuation route, 2) skills to evacuate including collaboration with neighbours.

3. NAPSIPAG International Conference “Locked in Growth Patterns: Rethinking land management and
disasters for the post-2015 development agenda for the Asia Pacific”, 7th to 9th December 2013,Centre
for the Study of Law and Governance at Jawaharlal Nehru University
At Okawa Elementary School in Ishinomaki City, we lost lives of 74 students and 10
teachers even though the school itself was designated to a shelter. They had more than
half an hour for evacuation after the strong earthquake. When they decided to evacuate
to higher ground, it was too late, and unfortunately, they moved towards tsunami which
quickly run up along the wide river nearby and attacked them from higher ground. The
reasons why they did not dicideto evacuate immediately are still under investigation.
Figure 2Ookawa Elementary School in Ishinomaki City
In Kamaishi City, regular schools for compulsory education had a program on tsunami
evacuation including evacuation drills. Students were well informed by video programs
thattell even a sharrow tsunami stream may have power to wash away adults and cars.
When the first alert of tsunami issued immediately after the quake on 11th March 2011,
the estimated tsunami height was 3 meters. Adults who believed in the 8 meters seawall
protecting Kamaishi City did not pay attention to tsunami but worked on putting things
fell down by the strong earthquake in place. When the alert of tsunami height was
elevated to more than 10 meters, electricity of the tsunami hit zone was already cut off.
However, students including those at home alone started evacuation trigerred by the big
quake thanks to education and training. Some of them argued grand parentswho
wanted to change their mind and successfully survived together. Thanks to timely
evacuation, even though many lives of adults were lost, more than 99% of school
childrens could surviveii.
4. Key findings
The key factors for survival learned from the comparison of 3 different evacuation
practices from tsunami on 11th March 2011 are1) timely decision making and 2) capacity
of evacuation.

4. NAPSIPAG International Conference “Locked in Growth Patterns: Rethinking land management and
disasters for the post-2015 development agenda for the Asia Pacific”, 7th to 9th December 2013,Centre
for the Study of Law and Governance at Jawaharlal Nehru University
The finding tells the fact that many of those who have been assumed to be “vulnerable”,
those with severe psycho-social disabilities in Urakawa and elementary school kids in
Kamaishi, actually have different ability to become active players of evacuation for the
whole community.
The key for successful evacuation in both Urakawa and Kamaishi is access to knowledge,
information and communication, and shelters including evacuation route and
immediate decision making for evacuation as a reaction to big earthquakes. As long as
the tsunami is concerned, we may expect zero human casualties if evacuation of the
whole community becomes successful.
The question is “how to promote timely decision making”.
Of course, sharing scientific knowledge is the baseline for decision making. People with
special needs requires accommodation to meet their requirements.
The “DAISY iii multimedia manual for Tsunami Evacuation iv ” is an example of
accessible and easy-to-understand manual for persons with special requirements.
Figure 3 A screen shot of the Tsunami Evacuation Manual in DAISY multimedia format
5. Role of accessible ICT and the way forward

5. NAPSIPAG International Conference “Locked in Growth Patterns: Rethinking land management and
disasters for the post-2015 development agenda for the Asia Pacific”, 7th to 9th December 2013,Centre
for the Study of Law and Governance at Jawaharlal Nehru University
Innovation of sharing knowledge towards accessible, easy-to-understand, customizable
and affordable formatsuch as EPUB3 v and DAISY may greatly help persons with
disabilities and other “vulnerable” people to become active participants of inclusive
disaster risk reduction development in the community.
Access by persons with disabilities requires accommodation of diverse individual
requirements. For example, a handbook on tsunami evacuation for promotion of
self-help/mutual-support need to be understood by everybody in the community in
particular those with special requirements to understand the handbook. Those
requirements include reading aloud, enlarging font, changing color contrast, adding
pictures and maps, translation to braille, sign language and other languages, &c.
In 2005, DAISY and W3C/SMIL developers around the world got together in Urakawa
to discuss this issue and launched the Urakawa Project which is maintained by the
DAISY Consortium still now. The tangible outcome of the Urakawa Project were
W3C/SMIL3.0
vi
and Urakawa SDK
vii
both are contributing DAISY/EPUB3
development to meet the crucial requirements of persons with disabilities at risk
As the article 2 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)
indicates, accessibility of persons with disabilities may be guaranteed by development of
a combination of universally designed infrastructure which collaborates with assistive
technologies when adaptation is necessary.
As long as the published knowledge is concerned, DAISY/EPUB3 propose an industry
platform to meet the diverse requirements we mentioned already.
In this context, the government and the international community are requested to help
emerging accessible electronic publishing and accessible broadband network to support
the implementation of internationally agreed measures and instruments for Disability
Inclusive Development such as the Convention on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilitiesviii, the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons
Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired, or Otherwise Print Disabled ix and the ESCAP
Incheon Strategy to “Make the Right Real” for Persons with Disabilities in Asia and the
Pacificx.
In conclusion, therevision process for the Hyogo Framework for Action xi and the
Millennium Development Goals xii for post-2015 must change the mindset on the
“vulnerables”from a burden to the asset of a community with practical empowering
policies and practices at all levels that meet the accessibility requirements of all.
Further contacts:

6. NAPSIPAG International Conference “Locked in Growth Patterns: Rethinking land management and
disasters for the post-2015 development agenda for the Asia Pacific”, 7th to 9th December 2013,Centre
for the Study of Law and Governance at Jawaharlal Nehru University
Hiroshi Kawamura: hkawa@atdo.jp
Mayu Hamada:
Ai Kawamura:
hamada@atdo.jp
kawamura@exri.co.jp
iThe
research group includes researchers from Assistive Technology Development
Organization, Autism Society of America, DAISY Consortium, Disaster Reduction and
Human Renovation Institution, Japanese Society for Rehabilitation of Persons with
Disabilities, Kentucky Autism Training Center,National Rehabilitation Center for
Persons with Disabilities Research Institute, Urakawa Bethel’s House, &c.
iihttp://www.nhk.or.jp/sonae/mirai/program_sp01/watch03.html (in Japanese)
iiiDigital Accessible Information System http://www.daisy.org/
ivThe
DAISY version manual is downloadable from :
http://atdo.sakura.ne.jp/files/DAISY/share/tsunami_urakawa_en_exe_mp3.zip
vInternational
digital Publishing Forum in collaboration with the DAISY Consortium
developed a mainstream digital publishing standard EPUB3.http://idpf.org/
vihttp://www.w3.org/TR/2008/REC-SMIL3-20081201/
viihttp://www.daisy.org/daisyforall
viiihttp://www.un.org/disabilities/convention/conventionfull.shtml
ixhttp://www.wipo.int/meetings/en/doc_details.jsp?doc_id=245323
xhttp://www.unescap.org/publications/detail.asp?id=1523
xihttp://www.unisdr.org/we/coordinate/hfa
xiihttp://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/