87 UD Approach to Risk Communication (PSAM-0099)

Risk Communication (RC) is becoming more and more important for risk-relevant social decision-making in modern democratic society, but its practical design method has not yet been established. This paper focuses on a design method of risk communication, in particular a method to take different needs and characteristics of people into account in risk communication. There exists clear correspondence between risk communication and Universal Design (UD), the purpose of the latter is to make design of products usable to all people. We will first introduce a UD framework, where various risk messages adapted to recipient groups are generated from the common risk information data depending on presentation templates. Then we will discuss the design process of risk communication. In this process, scenario of risk communication and recipient groups to be considered are identified first, and then requirements and solutions for risk communication are analyzed using a RC matrix. Concrete risk messages are created and structured following the outcome of this analysis. An example of the proposed method will be shown using a case of risk communication on an incident at a nuclear power plant to the peripheral residents. Finally, we will present architecture of universal web as a method of actual implementation of the proposed idea on the Internet.