Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU), NHERI 2023: Language and Disaster: Linguistic Inaccessibility in Disaster Recovery Planning and Its Impacts on Mexican-Origin Women and Community-Based Organizations.

This study analyzes the impact of language inaccessibility in disaster recovery planning on Mexican-origin women and community-based organizations (CBOs) in Houston, Texas after Hurricane Harvey. By performing a Critical Document Analysis of disaster recovery planning and policy documents, as well as a Code-Document and Code-Cooccurrence Analysis of interviews with CBO’s and Mexican-origin women. While the data is not shared in this publication, the analysis of said data may be used to inform and change disaster recovery policy in Houston, Texas. This study reveals the challenges faced and strategies employed at the community level to overcome linguistic barriers. Policy, decision-makers, and main stakeholders are the intended audience.