by John M. Williams
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Before Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast states, hundreds of thousands of individuals with disabilities fearfully awaited what they knew was a life-changing catastrophe. Poor, isolated, and lacking transportation and communications to help them escape, they feared for the worst, and received a blow worse than they expected.
“I lost everything,” Marvin Harland, New Orleans, Louisiana, told me tearfully over the telephone. Harland has a speech problem and uses a wheelchair. He says he was rescued by first responders days after Katrina struck. Harland never expected to be a beggar, but he sees himself as one. He needs food, clothes, medicine, money, and housing. Weeks after Katrina, he says, “I am living on the sidewalks.”
He is not the only person with a disability living under what he calls, “the scars of a battlefield.” Since Katrina, the press has reported thousands of stories of the plight of poor people with disabilities combating government inertia and ineptitude. For example, New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof reported on Eugene Johnson, whose eye medicine washed away in Katrina and who can’t afford to buy more. Kristof argues that as the country rebuilds the Gulf region it must urgently reconstruct a sensible health care system. Kristof reports that Johnson could not afford to pay $119 for medicine and as a result, “Johnson is slowly going blind.” Efforts are under way to help Harland and Johnson deal with all of their needs.
Harland’s and Johnson’s conditions symbolize a broken down health care system fueled by free market pressures to place profit above health. The fact that this country, the richest in the world, allows these situations to exist erodes our international image as a nation caring for its own. An important task challenging the nation as it reconstructs is: What will it take to fix our health care system?
After Katrina, people with disabilities did benefit from several actions taken by entities in both the public and private sectors. These actions also demonstrated leadership from organizations representing people with disabilities. For displaced students with disabilities, for example, schools in North Texas worked with their parents to ensure they had their Individual Education Plan (IEP) as required by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act. Some school districts hired additional staff. Some school districts looked for assistive technology products. Eva-Marie Ayala, Star-Telegram staff writer, reported that, “Experts are estimating that between 10% to 15% of the students will need help.”
Other positive results are the leadership initiatives from leaders in the disability arena. Among them are:
• United Spinal Association donated a wheelchair accessible bus and a truckful of equipment to New Orleans Resources for Independent Living. (See Orbit October ’05.) For information visit www.unitedspinal.org.
• Curtis Decker, Chairman of the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities sent a letter to President Bush asking him to take specific steps to address the needs of people with disabilities in ensuring they have access to health and long-term care, employment protection, safe and affordable and accessible housing, and access to transportation.
• The National Council on Disability (NCD) (www.ncd.gov) is gathering information on how Hurricanes Katrina and Rita affected people with disabilities and their relatives, friends, neighbors, and how they have affected organizations that have been providing assistance to people with disabilities.
• The National Emergency Resources Registry (NERR) is an on-line resource launched by the Department of Homeland Security to assist in coordinating efforts between individuals and organizations responding to the needs of people with and without disabilities. For information visit www.nod/org/emergency.
• The National Organization on Disability deployed four rapid assessment teams consisting of nationally recognized emergency management practitioners into the Gulf region to gather information about the impact and service delivery to people with disabilities, seniors, and medically managed persons. People from the Red Cross, Catholic Charities, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Social Security Administration, Housing and Urban Development, and the Federal Emergency Management Association told me they were grateful for the aggressive, educational policies on disability matters from organizations representing people with disabilities.
According to the 2000 Census data and the 2003 American Community Survey data, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana have more than 250,000 people with disabilities in all age ranges, and these individuals are disproportionately poor and disproportionately unemployed.
As the reconstruction goes on, people with disabilities have the opportunity and the responsibility to become involved. As buildings rise, their input is needed on making them physically accessible. When meetings occur to discuss building, people with disabilities must be there for input. They must be at transportation meetings to ensure that roads are built to their homes and accessible transportation comes to their neighborhoods. They must act to find employment, because there will be jobs. They must work the political system to ensure they are part of the solution. They must sit on school boards to built better schools. They must be active in their religious affiliations. Where it is needed, they must ensure that assistive technology is available. In effect, they must become visible and vocal. This is their country, too!
John Williams writes Orbit’s Technology Edge column.
