Report on Introduction of Universal Design of ICT in Earthquake Emergency Management in Pakistan

Many people died in emergencies due to not having proper information on safety and precautions, especially the disabled and elderly people that do not have a source of information due to lack of accessibility.  (Onuma, Shin, & Managi, 2017). The knowledge of specific safety precautions is mandatory in specific emergencies. For example, in a situational disability, in which people also be considered as disabled for a specific situation, for example, during an earthquake, people cannot read safety precautions easily due to the shaking of the earth. Similarly, with a diverse population that is, including disabled and elderly people and also people from different countries who speak different languages, it’s hard for them to read safety precautions. Hence, there is a need for a universally designed system to deal with such difficulties. In Pakistan, there is a lack of information about safety precautions due to which mostly Pakistani did not know what to do in emergency situations. That results in the loss of lives that could be saved. That’s why the knowledge of emergency management precautions and safety is very important

Universal design has become very vital to advance teaching skills or to provide any knowledge or safety precautions (Perez & Gonzalez, 2017). Participants from a research study are significantly in favor of Universal design for instructions (Hartsoe & Barclay, 2017). As, the purpose of this research study is to make a universally designed system to save lives by providing necessary safety advice for all kinds of people regardless of their age, gender, location, and disability. These safety precautions will be used in emergency management, specifically earthquake emergency management. The targeted audience of this research study is Pakistani people, including the people having different impairments disabilities and elderly people. So, by this research, a universally designed system for earthquake emergency management will be designed to save lives for all sorts of people. This system should not only provide safety guidelines but also give advice for all sorts of people, including the impaired, elderly, and situational impaired people.

In Pakistan, many deaths happen during an emergency due to not having proper knowledge of what to do in such a situation. That’s why the knowledge of emergency management precautions and safety is very important. Pakistani people do not have an awareness of how much lives could be saved if they focus and pay attention to safety precautions for an emergency.

An example of unawareness took place on the 25th of June 2017 at 9:25 am when an oil tanker was going from Karachi to Lahore and carrying 40,000 liters of fuel. When it was taking a sharp turn, it flipped on National Highway, Ahmedpur East. The fuel started leaking, and many nearby people from the village rushed there to collect the fuel. There were many women kids and old men as well. Everyone was collecting fuel without having an awareness that fuel can catch fire. After a couple of minutes, when many people gathered there to collect the fuel, the tanker exploded and squeezed all the nearby men, women, and children who were collecting the fuel. Approximately 123 people died in this incident, and more than 120 got injuries. (Michael, 2017)

As the focus of this research is to implement a universally designed system to educate people about safety precautions. So, in universal design, we cannot ignore disable, handicapped, or impaired people. It is very rare in Pakistan that someone accepts disabled persons as a contributing member of society. Even disabled persons are considered a burden on the family. But we cannot ignore disabled persons, as approximately10% of the population of the world is disabled, according to the United Nations. Like in many other countries, disabled people are living a miserable life. (Salahuddin & Jalbani, 2007)

Moreover, these people should know all the possible safety precautions in an emergency. Pakistan is a low-income country; it is very expensive to provide safety precautions instructions to people, especially to the disabled or impaired persons. So, the cheapest and easy way to provide safety precautions for emergency management is to make a Universally designed website.

From the above-mentioned example, it is clear that

1.      ICT is not much used as emergency management in Pakistan

2.      The universal design of ICT Is not so much common in Pakistan

3.      Slow internet speed or no internet availability, electricity load shading, a virus threat, and not having enough knowledge to use mobile features to surf the internet are the main reasons due to which ICT is not very much used in Pakistan (Siddiquah & Salim, 2017).