Universal Design of ICT for Emergency Management from Stakeholders’ Perspective

Abstract

While Universal Design principles have been adopted in many areas to ensure that products and services are usable for the broadest possible diversity of users, there is still an open area when it comes to the emergency management domain. This article aims at providing a systematic overview of the current state of the emerging research field of Universal Design of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for Emergency Management, and to highlight high-impact research opportunities to ensure that the increasing introduction of ICT in Emergency Management can contribute to removing barriers instead of adding more barriers, in particular for the elderly and people with disabilities. A systematic review on relevant literature on Universal Design, ICT and Emergency Management between 2008 and 2020 was employed using predefined frameworks, to answer the following questions: (1) Who are the target audiences (stakeholders) in research on Universal Design of ICT in Emergency Management in the different categories of Emergency Management ICT tools, and to what degree is Human-Centred Design and Universal Design taken into account? (2) What are the most important challenges and gaps in research on Universal Design of ICT in Emergency Management? We identify a set of gaps in the literature, indicating that there are some challenges where Universal Design is still limitedly addressed in technology development. We also derive promising future research topics based on areas that are missing in the literature.

What does my technology facilitate`? A toolbox to help researchers understand the societal impact of a technology in the context of disasters

“…consideration of the purpose and specific target audience, and partnerships between academia and the private sector to improve disaster management overall (ITU, 2019). This is also stressed in the literature review of Gjøsaeter et al (2020) In addition, our study shows that experts are interested in reflecting on their technologies, but emphasize that this is not just their responsibility but the task of all actors involved in the development, implementation, deployment, and use of a technology. This is indicated by the neutral answers for the practical and social potential statements (see Figure 6 and Figure 7).…”

“…This is also confirmed by a review study on universal design, referring to designs that are usable by everyone with a maximal benefit (Connell et al, 1997). Gjøsaeter et al (2020) conclude that despite the efforts of making ICT emergency technologies more accessible, there is still a gap to design those technologies for everyone, i.e. every possible user.…”

Detection and analysis of emergency topic in social media considering changing roles of stakeholders

“…The crisis topic evolution model considering the dynamic classification of stakeholders depicts the development process of social media emergency events from the three dimensions of “topic-people-time”, and deepens the information aggregation theory of social media emergency events (Gjosaeter et al. , 2021).…”

“…The crisis topic evolution model considering the dynamic classification of stakeholders depicts the development process of social media emergency events from the three dimensions of "topic-people-time", and deepens the information aggregation theory of social media emergency events (Gjosaeter et al, 2021). On the basis of dividing the evolution cycle of emergencies, the proposed model analyzed the characteristics, types, and contents of crisis information needs of different crisis subjects in different stages.…”

Innovate emergency governance mechanism of urban communities in response to major public health events: A qualitative study from multiple principals in Guangzhou, China

“…In addition, smart devices such as AI face capture and recognition cameras, noncontact infrared thermometers, and voiceprint data collection terminals are used to improve the non-contact level of community governance and control services, thereby improving the efficiency of community governance. What's more, break down departmental and regional barriers and built a data resource sharing system with unified command, interconnection, security and reliability (22,43,44). So we can improve community smart service systems, medical care, and elderly applications to create a "convenient service circle with shortest distance" ultimately.…”