Disaster Mitigation and Persons with Disabilities

1
Disaster Mitigationand Persons with Disabilities

• Edward Tanzman
• Co-Director, Center for Integrated Emergency
  Preparedness
• Argonne National Laboratory
• February 23, 2010

2
Mitigation Reduces DisasterRisks and Consequences

• Mitigation purposes
• Reduce community threats
• Increase resilience among those affected
• Examples
• Build structures only outside of floodplains
• Install earthquake valves on natural gas pipes
• Get influenza vaccinations
• Challenges
• Typically requires investment without immediate
  payback
• Favors the powerful when government funds are
  involved

3
Mitigation Benefits Persons with Disabilities
Disproportionately

• Greater vulnerability to disasters means greater
  benefits from risk reduction
• Reduces response resource requirements
• Reduces long-term recovery needs
• Reduces instances of exclusion
• Better overall availability of assistive
  technology also can be a disaster mitigation
  strategy
• Increased access greater wealth
  more resilience
• Greater assistive technology resources implies
  more options for their use during disasters

4
Needs of Persons with Disabilities Must Be
Included in Mitigation Strategy Development

• Education
• Information about persons with disabilities
  (registries)
• Benefits for persons with disabilities of
  mitigation
• Benefits for community resilience of greater
  assistive technology availability
• Impacts of disabilities on mitigation options
• Tools
• Data about assistive technology organizations and
  inventories
• Methods to integrate assistive technology
  resources more fully into social support systems
• Models to optimize assistive technology reuse
  benefits for mitigating community disaster risks