Seiji Kondo Laboratory, Faculty of Social Safety, Kansai University conducted a disaster prevention awareness survey of 328 hearing-impaired people living in Kusatsu City, Shiga Prefecture, in order to capture the actual situation of hearing-impaired people.As a result, it was found that the majority of "elderly disabled people" have many problems such as supporters in the event of a disaster, social isolation, and communication problems.
"Sign language" and "smartphone" were less than 3% of the communication methods for the hearing impaired, and "vocalization" was the most popular choice.This is because there are more deaf people than deaf people, and it is presumed that wearing masks and suppressing the volume of voice in the corona sickness will be a barrier to communication.Many of the evacuation centers were asked for help marks to indicate that they were hearing impaired.
Next, when asked if there were any problems or dislikes caused by being hearing-impaired, 22.7% of the respondents answered "yes". It turned out that there were many people who were in trouble because they could not get the understanding and cooperation from the surroundings in the scenes of "vocalization" and "oralism".Associate Professor Kondo said, "We need to investigate and consider the problem of" social isolation "that cannot be solved by ourselves. We will find a way out in the face of limits and restrictions on administrative support. If so, it is necessary to create a mechanism to stimulate intergenerational exchanges between hearing-impaired people. "
