People with disabilities avoiding disaster │ The Science of Disasters with Ilan Kelman

What if you are blind, deaf, or have another disability and a disaster occurs? How would you evacuate successfully? Have your needs been considered by the authorities? See disasters from another perspective in this next episode of our series.

People with disabilities are often assumed to be especially vulnerable to disasters, to lack choices for reducing their vulnerabilities, and to need extra help. A cyclone or tornado shelter with only stairs for entry could never meet everyone's requirements.

People who use wheelchairs or who have just had a hip replacement would need to be carried into and out of the shelter. Such choices and warnings or shelters make some people vulnerable because now they must request extra assistance and hope that someone is around who is willing and able to provide support. Consequently, the warning and shelters cannot be fully effective.

Building a ramp for each shelter, providing mobility assistance and issuing warnings in several forms in media might sometimes cost more upfront and require more effort, but permitting deaths and disasters by failing to account for people's specific abilities and needs has incalculable costs. The choice is ours regarding which costs we accept.

Marcos Eduardo Barcaro Varela, who lives in San Jose, Costa Rica, has visual disabilities and occasional seizures. He describes how his grandfather instilled earthquake safety in him with the advice to remain calm and not to run. Marcos applied this guidance on the 5th of September 2012, when a major earthquake shook the country. His house withstood the shaking and Marcos was able to calm the maid who wanted to dash into the street where electricity wires might pose a danger. Because he had an earthquake-resistant house and had been given sound instructions before the hazard, which he'd listened to, Marcos’ disabilities were irrelevant to his survival in the earthquake and he was able to choose to help the maid who did not have disabilities. Vulnerability reduction long before the earthquake meant that Marcos retained his dignity, applied self-help and assisted someone else who should have been taught beforehand to help themselves.

Visual disabilities come in a wide variety but are typically straightforward to overcome for disasters by using audio sources, providing glasses, making large print available or operating to remove cataracts. The approaches adopted depend on the specific visual ability. Hearing disabilities should also be straightforward to deal with. Text messages video messages and visual news flashes for websites and television contribute to ensuring that lack of hearing does not mean lack of information. Hearing aids, from cochlear implants to simple amplifiers, they suit some people, as do vibrating pagers to wake them up with alerts.

Disaster vulnerability in this context is not about lack of vision or lack of hearing, it is about lack of access to alternatives. Are similar choices available for everyone?

Many people rely on oxygen, others require 24-hour care, while those with certain cognitive and intellectual disabilities will have specific requirements for communication, preparation, evacuation and shelter.

People with compromised immune systems might be highly vulnerable to infection within the close confines of a shelter, so should society make choices and incur the costs of making arrangements under all hazard circumstances to reduce vulnerabilities for all these people? The answer lies in the final word of that last sentence. Because they are people, they have the same rights as everyone else, they deserve the same dignity as everyone else and they should be given the same opportunities as everyone else to deal with disasters. With adequate resources and appropriate attitudes and preparations, people with a huge range of capabilities, covering all states of health and all communication abilities would have choices about tackling their own vulnerabilities while helping others, just like Marcos did.

Are disasters worse depending on where we live? Are we more vulnerable in cities than on islands? Join me for our next episode to explore the question. And don't forget to subscribe to keep up with the series as a whole.