David Alexander

1. Disasters and People
with Disabilities
David Alexander
University College London

2. • lack of data on needs
• lack of integration and co-operation
among organisations for people with
disabilities & civil protection authorities
• no general standard for emergency
planning and management for people with
disabilities, only pockets of innovation.
There is a knowledge, planning and
implementation shortfall in civil protection

3. • mobility impairment:
a barrier to evacuation
• hearing, sight and cognition impairment:
barriers to receipt of warnings
• obstacles to communication
• loss of electricity for support equipment
• shortage of assistance.
Emergencies and disasters create barriers

4. "A gender, age, disability and cultural
perspective should be integrated in
all policies and practices." para. 19(d)
"Empowering women and persons with
disabilities to publicly lead and promote
gender equitable and universally accessible
response, recovery, rehabilitation and
reconstruction approaches is key." Para. 32

5. Creating a
culture of civil
protection
Creating a
culture of
inclusion and
acceptance
Cultural
change
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

6. Are measures comprehensive enough
to include all kinds of disability?

7. Is providing assistance to people with
disabilities a medical, social, public
health or public order problem? Why
should it be considered a problem at all?
Providing emergency assistance to people
with disabilities, and helping them to be
resilient, is a multi-dimensional challenge.

8. Is 'positive discrimination'
advisable during emergencies?

9. Pertinent questions & issues - and some possible answers
Is enough attention given to emergency
planning for institutions, such as care
homes and psychiatric hospitals?

10. Person with disability
• family members
• carers and personal assistants
• neighbours
Services
• civil protection
• emergency responders
• health services
• social services
• voluntary agencies - civil protection
• voluntary agencies - people with disabilities
Institutions
(e.g. care homes)
• carers and managers

11. • evacuation and temporary shelter
• specialised evacuation of fragile people
• continuity of medication and treatment
• monitoring people's condition
• "No one should be left behind".
Emergency planning arrangements
for care homes

12. Should registering people with disabilities
with the civil protection authorities
be obligatory or a matter of choice?
Does legislation on assisting people with
disabilities [in emergencies and disasters]
need to invite or require compliance?
Should there be sanctions for not doing to?

13. The UN Convention on the Rights of
Persons with Disabilities requires
countries to involve people in the
making of decisions that concern them.
Does anyone take the trouble
to see civil protection and
emergency management from
the point of view of
people with disabilities?

14. Emergency planning is usually orientated
to catering for large groups of people:
citizens with disabilities
need individual attention.
It is not a good strategy to merge
assistance to people with disabilities
with that given to other groups
(ethnic minorities, single mothers, etc.).

15. Some basic principles:
• preparation, training, exercising
• associations for people with
disabilities involved in civil
protection and emergency planning
• emergency communications
to be accessible and reliable
• procedures and services accessible
in normal times and emergencies
• involve the mass media in the
transmission of warnings to
people with disabilities.

16. Anti-discrimination monitoring (and
eventual correction) to be applied to:
• planning
• alert
• warning
• emergency response
• evacuation
• respite
• transitional shelter
• recovery.

17. dDisabilities
volunteer
organisations
Civil protection
volunteer
organisations
Social services
of local
authorities
Social services
of local
health districts
Emergency
Planning

18. Most of the innovations and advances
in assisting people with disabilities in
disasters and crises come from the local
(or possibly regional), not national level.

19. • review
• guidelines
• recommendations

20. Providing safe
conditions for
people with
disabilities during
and after disaster
is not a problem:
it is a challenge
at which to excel.
David.Alexander@ucl.ac.uk
www.slideshare.net/dealexander