Accessibility Matters - Emergency Preparedness

Being prepared in a disaster is essential for anyone, but having a disability means that particular considerations need to be made. Fortunately, there are a variety of resources available for both individuals in preparing for an emergency and organizations assisting in disaster relief.

The images from a few weeks ago of Fort McMurray, AB on fire were disturbing. Though 85 per cent of the city was saved, 2,400 structures were destroyed, and many others damaged. Basic services have yet to be restored which indicates that residents’ return will be gradual.

I, as with many around me, wondered what I would do. What would I bring away if I had to leave and couldn’t return? Do I know where all my essential documents are? What documents are even essential? What if I was by myself and needed to evacuate? How would I get anywhere without someone to drive a vehicle? Where would I go? And how would I keep in touch with loved ones? What if there were hazards I couldn’t detect with a cane and going too far afield would increase the danger I was in?

Thinking about disasters can certainly cause one to invent worst-case scenarios.

As with most things, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Fortunately, there’s help. The Government of Canada has created a website where anyone can learn about steps they should take before, during, and after specific emergencies or hazards. Users can, with tips, create a disaster plan online for offline printing. It also lists documents that you should have copies of in an emergency kit, there are links to purchase emergency kits from the Red Cross.

And there is also a highly helpful guide for persons with disabilities.

This guide includes guidance on disability-specific preparedness, such as arranging for or having one’s own non-powered evacuation wheelchair, having an extra stability or mobility cane, extra hearing aid batteries, or written instructions for emergency personnel in case an individual is nonverbal. More generally, having emergency contacts both nearby and far enough away to be unaffected by the same disaster is also recommended, and having contact information for medical professionals, particularly those that prescribe necessary medications, is also advised.

My only criticism for this guide is that the disability-specific emergency planner is a downloadable PDF which must be printed and filled in manually. The more universal emergency planner, which contains a less thorough area for disabilities to be specified, is HTML-based and can be filled in online and printed. I am not sure why the guide for persons with disabilities should be different.

Thought has also gone into a guide detailing assisting persons with disabilities by workers and volunteers at emergency shelters or evacuation centers. This guide was written with the collaboration of many organizations including the accessibility Directorate of Ontario, The Canadian Hearing Society, The Canadian National Institute for the Blind, and Easter Seals, among many others. It gives practical ways to assist evacuees with all needs, from assisting those with diabetes, to information about sighted guide, or the best ways to help those with intellectual delays. Assisting those in mental health crises is also covered.This guide is very thorough and a great resource, though as with all written instructions for emergency preparedness, enacting role plays would be the best way to reinforce these concepts in as close to a real-world scenario as possible.

The missing piece here is transportation to an evacuation center specifically for seniors or persons with disabilities, who may not be able to drive themselves or might be in need of assistance leaving their homes. I could not find a specific reference to such transportation in London, ON's own emergency response plan, but I imagine there are plans in place. If not, this would be part of each individual’s own emergency plan, which is probably a good idea anyway.

From preparing for a disaster to evacuating for one, communication is always important. Having accessible means of learning information is a must. The Alert Ready system in Canada provides audio and written messages over radio and television in case of a disaster, but new sources of media should also be considered in the age of streaming music over commercial radio and Netflix over television.

In the case of Fort McMurray, for instance, the municipality’s Twitter account became much more actively updated than its website. Whoever was at the end of that account provided to-the-minute updates and replied directly to almost every tagged message it received. It was an impressive feat. The inaccessibility of screenshots cannot go unmentioned here though, as the occasional update was sent this way and I, as a text-to-speech user, could make little of it.

This account was also platform-specific, relied on its recipients having Internet access, and required a smartphone or tablet while on the move. None of these things are yet universal. Fortunately, radio updates were frequent, which provided those in their cars with plenty of information as well.

In short, there are excellent resources to plan for an emergency in Canada, disability or no. So long as we each make those plans, we will be in good stead.