Learning How to Listen to Those Who Can't Hear: How to Bring the Weather-Ready Nation to the Deaf and Hard of Hearing

As the Weather-Ready Nation initiative continues to evolve and expand to various communities across the country, the weather enterprise is quickly learning just how much work is needed to reach all the various population sub-groups. Over the past decade, many efforts have been initiated to look into serving historically underserved populations such as non-English speaking citizens, those with hearing or vision loss, those on the autism spectrum and those that battle with anxiety, but how did they start?

In regard to the hearing loss community, the answer was to simply listen. As a result of the historic May 2010 flood of Nashville, TN, the hearing loss population in Middle Tennessee asked the National Weather Service in Nashville, TN to be involved in their efforts to provide communication for weather disasters. They subsequently formed an organization called Emergency Awareness and Readiness Services (EARS) for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. As a result of the historic April 27th, 2011 tornado outbreak across the Southeast United States, many Deaf Alabama residents asked the National Weather Service in Huntsville, AL to provide accessible weather notifications systems and training for the hearing loss population. That request led to the statewide SKYWARN training program for the hearing loss population in Alabama.

However, before we begin attempting to serve these various communities, we need to first step back and learn about the differences between them, and most importantly, learn about their cultures. How can we expect a community to embrace the Weather-Ready Nation culture if we don’t first learn and embrace theirs? This presentation will explore the challenges and successes the National Weather Service, and the weather enterprise as a whole, has experienced while making an effort to effectively reach the hearing loss population and learn about what it means to be big “D” Deaf.