When the Systems Go Down: The Disability Safety Questions We Need to Ask Before an Emergency Happen
When the Systems Go Down: The Disability Safety Questions We Need To Ask Before an Emergency Happens When people think about emergencies, they often think about the obvious things. They think about storms, floods, fires, power outages, phone outages, or a technology failure that affects thousands of people at once. They think about charging their phone, having some food in the cupboard, and waiting until everything comes back online. For many people, that is enough. It is frustrating. It is inconvenient. It can interrupt the day. But for many disabled people, an interruption to technology, equipment, transport, support systems, or communication can have a very different impact. A phone outage is not always just a phone outage. A power failure is not always just a power failure. A broken charger is not always just a broken charger. Sometimes the things that society sees as convenience are actually the things that allow a person to communicate, move around their home, access food, mainta...