Post-Conflict, Disaster Recovery, Reconstruction and Universal Design
With the increased focus on conflict-affected countries and frequently occurring natural disasters, the World Bank is facing a new challenge to effectively deal with emergency relief and reconstruction. In the relief and reconstruction work, incorporating universal design is particularly important because the prevalence of impairments and disability is especially high in post-conflict/disaster environments. More importantly, it can provide a real opportunity for creating a more inclusive society in the process of reconstruction with universal design.
Sometimes exclusion of vulnerable groups is even more striking in a crisis than in normal situations. Relief distribution does not necessarily reach the affected populations in a refugee camp in an equal manner. Minority groups, older people, people with disabilities, women and girls tend to be marginalized in survival situations. Therefore, in the emergency response, it is critical that shelters, food and water distribution, and health care services meet universal design principles to reduce discriminatory practices in service provision.
For instance, shelters should be accessible for all people including people with disabilities, children, elders, etc. instead of segregated facilities. When Hurricane Andrew struck Florida, shelters were totally incapable of accommodating the physical needs of fragile people or people with disabilities. Another survey of people with disabilities living in Bangladesh’s cyclone-prone coastal belt found that many were excluded from humanitarian aid because of inaccessible shelters and food distribution mechanisms.
Shelters should be designed to eliminate barriers that could prevent vulnerable groups from receiving services. Major barriers include: lack of physical access to the facilities, lack of accessible communications and communication in alternative languages and formats, blocked accessible paths by parked law enforcement vehicles, lack of access to the facilities by service dogs, lack of accessible bathrooms, lack of accessible sleeping equipment, lack of access to food and health-care needs, lack of or loss of contact with the rest of the family, lack of facilities for electrical or battery power for people who need to recharge power devices. All of these services are not usable by specific groups if universal design has not been considered. For instance, if food distribution or health-care services are available on a different floor, only reachable by stairs, the shelter does not serve everyone.
In a disaster, there are two classes of people with disabilities who are impacted, those whose disability predates the disaster and who are accustomed to living with their disability and those who have been temporarily or permanently disabled by the disaster and to whom disability is a new and terrible catastrophe. To address these two classes of isabled people it is necessary to include the causes of disability into the rescue process. The rescue process triages victims according to major life threatening conditions and those which are not life threatening. It is vital that the rescue process is designed to accommodate the two classes of people with disabilities, by dealing with the urgent medical needs and restoring function to some, while being sensitive to and accommodating the needs of people with disabilities which predate the disaster. This process is also true for other groups who should be taken into consideration in a rescue effort. The situation of elderly people may be made worse by the disaster. Parents separated from their children must be considered. Therefore, project designers must be assured that these groups are factored into the rescue process. This process is a component of programmatic universal design.
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