By Sophia Auld: For More Info, Go Here…
Cyclone Yasi was tough for everyone, but for Kylie Hibberd – who is deaf and blind – the Category 5 monster brought greater challenges when it crossed the Queensland coast in February 2011. Fortunately, Hibberd was well prepared. “We had been keeping up to date with the weather warnings,” says the 44-year-old wildlife carer, who moved in with family for the cyclone’s duration.
While Hibberd suffered no major ill effects, many people with disability don’t fare well in natural disasters. According to the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, evidence suggests people with disability are two to four times more likely to die or be injured during natural disasters than the general population.
In 2015, the UN finalised the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction – the first to recognise the needs of people with disability. Along with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, it outlines expectations about the inclusion of the rights of people with disability in risk and emergency situations.
Almost one in five Australians has some form of disability, and 35.9 per cent of Australian households include a person with disability, according to figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Despite this, Australia has no national strategy for disability-inclusive disaster risk reduction (DIDRR). Disability advocates are calling for the development of a policy, emphasising the inclusion of people with disability in its planning.
People with disability experience heightened vulnerability during natural disasters, explains Andree Malpass, an occupational therapist and postgraduate research student at James Cook University (JCU). She has been exploring how people with disability shelter during cyclones. Her findings are showing how important the physical environment and access to support networks are for people with disability.
