loss of power for life-sustaining equipment
transportation challenges meaning people have to evacuate without equipment they need
nowhere to go because warning information and environments (such as the homes of friends or family, or evacuation facilities) are inaccessible.
Disaster planning for people with disability matters. We perpetuate inequality with every step we don’t take, and risk entrenching disadvantage. And if you make things inclusive for people with disability, you tend to make it inclusive for large swathes of groups also at risk in emergencies, including older people, socially disconnected people and others. Many birds, one stone.
Here are three things that must be done to expand opportunity, choice and control for people with disability when disaster strikes.