Tornado Warnings and the Blind/Low-Vision Community

Individuals with disabilities are typically more vulnerable to the impacts of weather hazards, such as tornadoes. This is especially true in the Southeast where vulnerability to tornadoes is already heightened. With the goal of reducing this vulnerability, this project seeks to improve our understanding of how the Blind community receives and responds to tornado warnings. Interviews were conducted with individuals from Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi who are legally blind. Participants discussed their information needs, barriers in their ability to obtain warning information, and typical responses to tornado warnings. Our preliminary results suggest that television is an important resource for this group, along with smartphone weather apps. Sources were similar to those utilized by the seeing public. Participants were asked what they do and do not like about television as a warning source and what they would change. The need for more verbal description and specific types of location information was a theme repeated in the interviews. The inability to see colors and the lack of audio for television warning crawls were also mentioned as things they dislike or would change about television coverage. When asked to describe the steps they would take if they received a tornado warning, participants followed steps known in the literature including moving to a safe place, confirming the warning, and turning the TV up to hear while sheltering. When in an unfamiliar location participants’ responses often fell into categories of not knowing what to do, waiting to be guided by others, relying on their own senses to figure out what to do, and/or being proactive--being aware of the possibility of severe weather and not being in an unfamiliar location. We will discuss these and other findings from the interviews as well as discuss future steps planned to investigate and improve the communication of tornado warnings for the Blind.