ABOUT

Concept

Digital agency Studio 24 partnered with global charity CBM Global to develop the Humanitarian Hands on Tool (HHoT) and the Inclusive Disaster Risk Reduction (i-DRR) Hands on Tool.

When disasters happen (e.g. flood, earthquake, war) people with disabilities are often among the worst affected and the last to receive help. At the same time, emergencies can increase the number of people who experience disability, both short and long-term, due to injuries sustained and lack of effective medical services.

In recent years international policies, frameworks and standards have recognised these facts, including the Charter on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action. However, for agencies carrying out the work on the ground what is very often missing is the ‘nuts and bolts’ of how to implement these policies.

The HHoT and i-DRR tools aim to bridge this gap between policy and practice.

From their experience in the field, CBM Global understand the distinct lack of practical advice, for example, how to ensure access to life-saving relief services such as food, shelter, and medical support for all including persons with disabilities.

CBM Global came to us not knowing whether they wanted an app, a website, or both. We undertook a pro-bono discovery phase to help identify functionality requirements and prototype a solution. The output of the discovery phase was used to help CBM Global gain funding for the full project.

Our challenge was to design and build tools that would allow relief workers easy access to humanitarian relief guidelines within disaster zones, where an internet connection can’t be guaranteed.

Execution

We built the tools as Progressive Web Apps (PWAs). PWAs offer capabilities similar to that of native mobile apps for example ‘installing’ the app (adding its icon to your phone homescreen for direct access) and push notifications.

PWAs are websites with an added layer of native-like functionalities. This means they can be maintained at a reasonable cost, which is an important consideration for charities.

The tools are made of easy-to-read task cards organised into different topics (shelter, nutrition, medicine etc). Each card presents useful information for designing and implementing inclusive humanitarian efforts. Where suitable, drawings and pictures support the information on the easy-to-read task cards.

A key consideration was that the applications should be highly performant (i.e. have fast load times) whilst being used on disrupted or poor internet connections.

With HHoT and i-DRR, the user can download the whole site data (cards and pages) and then navigate the whole app when offline, as you would after installing a mobile app. Even if the user decides not to download the data, visited pages are cached in the browser cache storage. Caching pages and other resources such as images greatly improves performance. Visited pages load fast and can still be viewed when offline.

The tools update automatically on reconnection and input and feedback is invited from users to ensure the tools grow while staying focused, relevant and up-to-date.

Results

We launched the first version of the HHoT in 2017 followed by the i-DRR in 2019. Since then we have been improving and iterating the tools when it comes to accessibility, content and language coverage.

Originally released in English, the Spanish language version followed in 2018.

In 2021, we introduced two new languages to both applications: Bengali (the official language of Bangladesh) and Bahasa Indonesia. CBM Global has been working in Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh since late 2017 alongside organisations such as Care and World Vision.

These organisations employ both international and local officers and have started using HHoT to improve the inclusion of people with disabilities in their humanitarian work. The translation into the local language facilitates the promotion of HHoT as the go-to tool when it comes to inclusive projects.

Taslima, working in Bangladesh, said: “I am working in this humanitarian section in the camp area. I am going to share real example from my experience. I am working under Child Protection and Education so I had to construct the Early Childhood Development Center and Adolescent Development Center. During construction time I was facing trouble to make an accessible pathway due to the hilly area. I was trying to reach an engineer who got the training about accessibility. But I couldn’t find one. That time I used this app and it was very helpful for me. I have experienced such type situation many times.”

The Kenyan Red Cross was trained on the usage of HHoT in order to ensure that they deliver an inclusive flood and famine response in partnership with CBM Global. This partnership was lauded as one of the 3 best practices in digital accessibility by the Information Communication Technology Authority (ICT-A) of Kenya. In 2020/2021 they commissioned a baseline survey conducted on enhancement of digital accessibility of government services for persons with disabilities in Kenya. The survey was funded by the UK government and delivered by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO).

In 2021, the war in Ukraine started. According to the United Nations, the conflict in Ukraine has caused the world’s fastest-growing displacement crisis since World War II.

The European Disability Forum estimates that over 143,600 persons with disabilities have been affected since the beginning of the war.

Although CBM Global is not actively responding to the crisis, the Age and Disability Technical Working Group under the lead of HelpAge International is promoting the HHoT as one of the go-to-tools when it comes to tasks and processes relevant to the design and implementation of inclusive humanitarian action. To ensure proper use the content has been translated in Ukrainian.

HHoT and i-DRR offer practical advice to ensure people with disabilities can access emergency services with dignity.

The future

We are currently working on French and Arabic translations for both HHoT and i-DRR. We expect these new language versions to be launched in 2023.

People with disabilities and their representative organisations are rarely consulted at any stage of the emergency cycle, from Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) through preparedness to emergency response, recovery and building back better. Without their input, full inclusion will not be possible.

Looking ahead, we will:

• Continue to focus on improving the content in adding relevant information like mental health and psychosocial support in humanitarian aid.
• Actively ask for feedback from users and act on it.
• The tools have to work for everyone, so we will carry out accessibility audits and test with real world users with a range of disabilities.
• Further promote the apps as go to tools when it comes to inclusive humanitarian action and disaster risk reduction in relevant networks.
• Incorporate further language updates to increase access to the tools and ensure that field workers can make use of them around the world.
• Carry out trainings to relevant and interested stakeholders (e.g. local and international NGOs, UN agencies) on the usage of both apps, to ensure that persons with disabilities around the world can benefit from it.
• Promote and facilitate full inclusion of persons with disabilities in mainstream services to build community resilience.