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Persons with disabilities are often overlooked throughout disaster management, although considered vulnerable. They are more likely to have limited access to services, information, and community networks. In terms of disasters, the implications are life-threatening. Because disaster warning signs are frequently delivered through a visual base, people with visual impairment (VI) often cannot receive important information. Wheelchair users frequently have difficulty accessing evacuation routes. Similarly, people with an intellectual disability or psychosocial disorders are frequently isolated because they cannot receive proper communication and emotional support.
Disasters unequally affect people with disabilities. The estimated mortality rate from the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011 in the general population was 1.03%, compared to 2.06% for those with disabilities. Besides, a survey showed that people with disabilities accounted for 24.6% of total “disaster-related deaths,” while only 7% of deaths were in the total population (Kyodo News, 2020). A study was conducted after the 2015 earthquakes in Nepal. People with disabilities experience various challenges and difficulties, including daily accessibility issues, physical vulnerability, psychological issues, a lack of health services, problems with government disability payments, and access to information. Findings showed that structural disparities and patterns of social exclusion have a wide variety of implications for patterns of recovery and resilience (Lord, 2016).
In a global society built on the ability to see, VI is a significant disadvantage to access to information. People with VI face significant challenges in daily life as they cannot freely move around, read, or write. This situation becomes incalculable during disaster events. There are many layers of barriers for those with VI to face during a disaster. For example, people need to know where to find and how to get to emergency shelters. At the shelter, people must understand where and when food is provided and how to access and use toilets. People with VI must obtain the required information precisely (Japan Disability Forum, 2015).
In Thailand, there are disasters, such as floods, storms, landslides, earthquakes, and tsunamis. The 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami was a significant disaster, and the 2011 Great Flood caused the most damage to lives and economies. Active faults also caused the magnitude 6.3 earthquake in Chiang Rai in 2014 (Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation [DDPM], 2015). Thailand has 2,127,332 people with disabilities, accounting for 3.18% of the population. Those with VI account for almost 9% (Punbutre, 2021). At the present, there is no study focusing on VI persons in Thailand that investigate their situation in disasters.