pages: CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2016-12-14.pdf, 8
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CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities | 2016-12-14 | 8 | Sharon Oliver: Yes. Susan Deutsch: In a big disaster the response could take a while. I worked in a school district that had evacuation chairs on the walls of the school so that when there was a disaster, people who worked in the school could actually get the students on to evacuation, take them down the stairs, because you couldn't use the elevator. So just thinking along those lines, doing this CERT training, people in the community, maybe they could learn how to assist people if they are in a wheelchair and that could be of help. Sharon Oliver: Yes. I would say that anybody can be trained, but some folks are heavy, and it takes a certain skill to understand how to effectively move somebody without hurting them. And then some people have issues that even takes more skill in moving them from wherever they are into one of those chairs. But that's not a bad idea. In fact, I see those chairs showing up places all over. Evacuation chairs hanging in a hallway, a few things like that. But moving people, I would say in our fire department, the things that hurts people in our department the most, is moving people. Somebody's fallen down in a precarious spot, and there's no room to lift properly. I wouldn't say that the average person couldn't do it, but it takes several people. It does pay to have a little bit of training, or you can actually hurt the person you're trying to rescue. Susan Deutsch: And hurt yourself! Sharon Oliver: And hurt yourself. So I would say we don't necessarily want you to leave your residence, if you have what you need, food, water and somebody to pick your books up off the floor. But honestly, you should have your bookcase secured to the wall so it doesn't tip. Those are some of the things you can do ahead to make your environment safer. Then we hope you can stay there. It's pretty disconcerting to leave your home, and shelters are not fun. They're important, we want them for people, we don't want anyone on the street, but it's not fun to be in an auditorium with a whole bunch of other people, sleeping on a cot. Our best case is to try and keep you in your home, if your home is safe enough, and you have food and water and your medicine, then maybe you don't need to leave. And you have blankets, so if it's chilly, your bundled. That, and you have somebody to check on you regularly, and a battery-powered radio so you can get some information, then you're going to be a lot more comfortable, I would guess. I know I would be in my home, even though my home doesn't have power, I would be more comfortable there, you have all your equipment and stuff. That's our goal, is to keep you in your familiar environment if we can, if it's safe. Elizabeth Kenny: I think that's the commission's questions. We do have a question from the public. Doyle Saylor? Doyle Saylor: Hello. It's more of a comment about one thing I heard. I'm with Renewed Hope, and I heard you talking about signage, and so first a comment about signage. Sometimes there's an illusion that if you put some braille up on the wall, that it'll help people who are visually impaired, but how is a visually impaired person going to find the braille? Braille often times is just what you hand out to people for information, but in my old job, we talked a lot about this sort of thing too, and what we looked at was smart tags. Doyle Saylor: And these are just tags that you put around that carry information about the location, and it's a rather big disability-related issue. It's been 10 years since I've looked at that very much, but what I would say about that is, Smith's Kettlewell in the city, which is San Francisco, does research on visually impaired issues, and they're leading experts in the world about signage for people with disabilities. One of their professionals, Josh Mealy, could be asked to come over to the city and talk to various city departments about signage for people with disabilities. I'm just putting out an idea for | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2016-12-14.pdf |