1.3 Billion people on the planet are living with a disability. During natural events, their mortality is up to 4x higher. Often, people with disabilities cannot  hear alarm sounds, read texts with emergency warnings, or they are bound to a wheelchair. In case of an emergency, about 169 million people are alone and cannot be evacuated. The Early Warning Strategy of the United Nations aims to ‚protect‘ every human in the coming years, but: Current early warning systems are not accessible to everyone.

Instead of one-way communication channels, such as traditional cell tower broadcasting, our system EARL („accessible EARLy disaster warning“) will soon provide a mobile solution that is tailored to the needs of people with disabilities. EARL will make early warnings accessible for people with visual, hearing, or other impairments. It will allow two-way communication with first responders and the localization of people in need via GPS.

EARL is a scalable platform based on a progressive web app that works independently from the device’s operating system. Conceptualized together with international NGOs, EARL is highly adaptive to user needs and can be scaled up after successful testing. EARL will allow access to state-of-the-art emergency monitoring systems and satellite-derived information (e.g. safe zones) depending on the user’s limitation.

EARL is currently in an experimental stage. Please get in touch if you are interested in collaborating as a user, project partner, or donor.