Let's learn from our mistakes before the next disaster strikes

By Lex Frieden
Special to The Clarion-Ledger

As we forge ahead with recovery and reconstruction in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, we have the opportunity and the duty as a nation to establish facilities and communities that are fully accessible to all — without the barriers that currently divide the landscape into a patchwork of islands of access for people with disabilities.

The National Council on Disability urges those who are rebuilding communities and restoring lives to include people with disabilities in all stages of disaster relief, future disaster preparedness, and recovery and reconstruction operations.

We have a critical opportunity to learn from our mistakes.

Hurricane Katrina and Rita survivors report that people with disabilities were an afterthought. Temporary shelters did not have entrances or restrooms accessible to people in wheelchairs; people with disabilities were separated from their families; and evacuees were displaced without assistive technologies.

Mainstream relief entities were severely challenged in serving people with disabilities in matters of finding temporary wheelchairs and vital medications, obtaining Braille and captioned information, or obtaining personal assistance services.

People with disabilities had no centralized source of disability-related information, and relief workers had not been trained to assist them.

Many of these issues remain unresolved, and evacuees with disabilities remain in crisis.

It is critical that relief efforts immediately involve people with disabilities and disability expertise from their communities. Many shelters turned away disability specialists who attempted to serve people with disabilities.

Organizations representing people with disabilities in Louisiana have had great difficulties getting permission from shelters to go into the shelters to identify the needs of evacuees with disabilities and to provide services and referrals.

Disability professionals in the Gulf Coast areas report an impending crisis as Red Cross shelters are being closed with no plans for accessible housing alternatives for people with disabilities.

It is imperative that the Red Cross, FEMA and others involved in relief efforts consult the network of disability experts and service providers in their areas to address immediate disability issues. Communities must involve people with disabilities in emergency preparedness planning and future relief and recovery efforts. Additionally, as we undertake an unprecedented reconstruction effort in rebuilding in the Gulf Coast region, we can create an entire region of the country that will serve as a model of accessibility and inclusion.

The National Council on Disability urges Congress, the administration and the affected cities and states to ensure that all government funding for disaster preparedness, recovery and reconstruction activities involve people with disabilities during all stages, and further, that all rebuilt and newly built infrastructure is fully accessible to and usable by people with disabilities in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Lex Frieden is chairperson of the National Council on Disability. To contact: 1331 F St., NW, Suite 850, Washington DC 20004; (202) 272-2008.