All ICT tools used in emergency management should be accessible and easy to use. This can be achieved by carefully following the principles of universal design and ensuring that ICT tools are usable by diverse users, including older people, people with disabilities, First Nations peoples, and remote communities.
This track focuses on accessibility, usability, and universal design of ICT in emergency management, an important emerging area of research within the ISCRAM community. Its primary objectives are to focus on usability for all users; promote an understanding of the implications of ICT for vulnerable groups in emergency management; uncover how ICT can help remove barriers; and bring together relevant researchers and practitioners to ensure access to information for everyone in an emergency.
The track is broadly interdisciplinary, accommodating approaches from diverse fields including universal design, accessibility and usability, human-computer interaction and interaction design, human-centred design, information and communication technology, information systems, cognitive psychology, disaster resilience, and emergency management. Together, these fields can contribute to disaster resilience for all. Scientists and practitioners concur that appropriate ICT can improve disaster management and crisis communication throughout preparedness, response, and recovery, including in relation to the needs of people with disabilities. Information-sharing and crowdsourcing tools are emerging as important factors in disaster resilience, and it is essential that these tools are accessible and usable by as many people as possible.
Topics of Interest
Possible topics of interest for this track include, but are not limited to:
- Usability and accessibility of ICT tools for improving resilience for all users, including older people, people with disabilities, First Nations peoples, and remote communities
- Personalized and adaptive ICT systems for older people, people with disabilities, and other vulnerable groups
- Universal design of crisis visualization tools and technologies
- Universal design of emergency response tools and technologies
- Universal design of information crowdsourcing and digital volunteer tools and technologies
- Universal design of emerging technologies in emergency management
- Universal design of social media for emergency interaction
- Universal design of crisis maps
- Universal design of emergency alert systems and technologies
- Universal design of security for emergency management solutions
- Evaluation of emergency management systems and tools
- Universal design of command and control rooms for emergency management
- Human-centred design of emergency management tools and technologies
- Assistive technologies with ICT tools in emergency management
- Interface design for ICT tools in emergency management
- Technologies and methodologies for improving the accessibility of crisis terminology
- Supporting ICT tools to mitigate language and cultural barriers in emergency management
- Situational disability in emergency situations
- Integrated research and evaluation methodologies for the usability of ICT support for emergency management
- Virtual and augmented reality applications in emergency management
- Universal design and usability for humanitarian technologies
- AI and the future of adaptive inclusive design in emergency management
- Universal design and AI
Track Chairs
| Role | Name | Affiliation | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corresponding Chair | Terje Gjøsæter | Centre for Integrated Emergency Management, Department of Information Systems, University of Agder, Norway Research Group for Universal Design of ICT, Department of Computer Science, Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway | Terje.Gjosater@uia.no |
| Co-chair | Jaziar Radianti | Centre for Integrated Emergency Management, Department of Information Systems, University of Agder, Norway | Jaziar.Radianti@uia.no |
| Co-chair | Weiqin Chen | Research Group for Universal Design of ICT, Department of Computer Science, Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway | weiche@oslomet.no |