Timely response saves lives: Strengthening emergency preparedness for people with disabilities
Earthquakes, fires, and floods can occur suddenly and cause fear and panic in the affected population. During an emergency or natural disaster, the safety of the entire population is at risk, but people with disabilities are particularly affected.
“Fear of an emergency is the second strongest fear, after fear for my child's future once I am gone,” says Natalija Lazić, mother of an autistic child, from the Association for Assistance to Persons with Autism of Serbia.
"We live on the third floor,” Lazić continues. “I keep wondering, in case of fire, would I be able to persuade my daughter to jump down from the third floor onto the rescue mattress? We would both certainly benefit from a fire rescue drill, so we can have an idea of what to do if need be.”
Similar concerns torment people with other types of disabilities. Many people with physical disabilities live on higher floors and fear that they will not be able to evacuate because of the existing barriers and lack of disability-inclusive infrastructure.
Escape routes save lives
Some of the main problems include inaccessible escape routes from residential buildings and difficult to get to emergency shelters. In 1999, at the time of the bombing of Serbia, shelters were not accessible to people with reduced mobility, which led to the death of three people with physical disabilities in Belgrade.
Another problem was that the early warning system was not efficient at the time. A family from Užice, in which all members were deaf, was not aware that the bombing had started until someone left a message in their mailbox days after. “I was eight months pregnant then,” recalls Aneta Eminagić Duraković from the Association of the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Persons in Serbia.
These and other testimonies were presented at the conference on “People with Disabilities in the Emergency Situations”, held in Belgrade, with the support of the OSCE Mission to Serbia and the Embassy of Sweden. The event gathered some 50 participants from civil society, authorities and the media, who discussed how to improve the early warning system for people with disabilities.
Effective early warning
John Clayton, Head of Democratization Department at the OSCE Mission to Serbia, speaks at the opening of the OSCE-Mission supported conference on strengthening emergency preparedness of people with disabilities, Belgrade, 11 December 2019.The OSCE Mission to Serbia is dedicated to strengthening the security and human rights of persons with disabilities, especially in times of natural disasters and emergencies.
“In addition to adequate infrastructure and efficient rescue service it is very important that an effective early warning system is in place and that everyone has equal access to public information at the time of an emergency,” says Clayton.
“As part of our efforts to make the Family Guide accessible to as many persons with disabilities as possible, we supported the printing of the Guide in Braille, the first such publication in Serbia tailored for people with visual impairment,” says Miroslav Kragić, OSCE Mission to Serbia’s National Project Officer. “Two hundred copies have been printed so far.”
The National Organization of Persons with Disabilities of Serbia, with support of the Mission, has produced an audio version of this Family Guide, a brochure and a short video with instructions on how to help and protect people with different types of disabilities during emergencies and disasters.
Information and communication accessibility
For better emergency response, it is crucial that people with disabilities have access to reliable, up-to-date information in real-time.
“It is important that we don’t get information late, as we did during the floods in 2014,” stresses Mihailo Gordić of the Association of the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Persons in Serbia.
Ivanka Jovanović, the Executive Director of the National Organization of Persons with Disabilities of Serbia says that in partnership with the media, there needs to be a protocol for better informing people with disabilities in emergencies.
“The media should increase the use of sign language, subtitles and multicolor light signals in their contents during emergencies,” says Jovanović.
Information accessibility for people with different disabilities should be improved in Serbia, not only at the time of emergencies. According to official data less than 3 percent of the media content of the Serbian public service media RTS1 is accessible to people with disabilities. Private TV stations with national coverage have no programmes adjusted to the needs of this vulnerable group.
“It is not only information accessibility that should be improved. There is also a need to promote accessible communication between people with disabilities and the emergency services,” says Mihailo Gordić.
“One of the main conclusions at the OSCE-Mission supported conference was that there is a need for introducing a national call center and mobile application able to provide early warning information in real-time in different formats: audio, video, and in sign language,” he says.
“The introduction of such a platform, available online and as an app, is in line with the international standards such as the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the first international, legally binding instrument in this field. Serbia is one of more than 180 signatories of this UN Convention,” says Clayton.
Moving forward
Similar to the UN recommendations, the Mission works with relevant stakeholders to call for continuing education of all involved in the protection of people with disabilities during emergencies.
“They would like to see workshops and drills for local civil protection bodies, fire and emergency services, local media and citizens,” says Miroslav Kragić, OSCE Mission to Serbia’s National Project Officer.
“There is also a need for brochures with simple guidelines for behavior during an emergency, which would be tailored to the needs of the various disability groups,” says Ivanka Jovanović, the Executive Director of the National Organization of Persons with Disabilities of Serbia. “Our positions have been shared with the Serbian National Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction Protection and Rescue in Emergency Situations.”
Adjusting to the world today
The current emergency in Serbia, and around the globe, make us consider the broadening of the scope of topics currently covered under emergency preparedness by the OSCE to include dealing with situations such as the coronavirus pandemic.
“Infections such as the one caused by the coronavirus, affect the health and safety of all individuals,” adds Clayton. “Unless the needs of the people with disabilities are met with the proper professional care, they will once again be in a worse situation than the general population. We cannot let that happen.”