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Response to Emergencies

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Persons with deafblindness must be protected in situations of risk, including armed conflict, humanitarian emergencies, and natural disasters. This includes measures to protect access to essential services, information that is available in accessible formats, and access to live assistance during and in response to emergencies[i].

Persons with disabilities are more likely to be left behind or abandoned during evacuation from disasters or conflict, often due to a lack of planning and preparation and inaccessible information, facilities, services, and transportation systems. Most shelters or refugee camps are not accessible and may turn away persons with disabilities, especially those with complex requirements or high support needs, like persons with deafblindness. In addition, disruption to physical, social, and economic networks and support systems can leave persons with disabilities at high risk of suffering the impact of the disaster or conflict but also at risk of not meeting basic human needs, such as nutrition, health care, access to medicines, rehabilitation, personal care, etc. When help arrives or recovery is initiated, persons with disabilities are often deprioritised because of their disabilities or overlooked as a vulnerable group[ii].

There is emerging evidence on the experiences of and interventions for persons with deafblindness in emergencies arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, which can inform future emergencies beyond global health crises. Some of the key concerns for persons with deafblindness raised during the pandemic include:

 

  • Access to information in accessible formats. The information during the pandemic, including individual guidance, changed rapidly and was often not available in accessible formats
  • Access to essential services, including health care, education, food, and rehabilitation services. Interpreter-guides/Deafblind interpreters and other forms of live assistance, such as carers, were also reduced or closed for periods. In some countries, family members were restricted from visiting or supporting family members, which affected persons with deafblindness who live independently, yet rely on family members for assistance (e.g., food shopping or interpreting). Parents of children with deafblindness were not equipped with the methods for teaching them, and could not take time off, as learners with deafblindness require more direct support
  • Communication became even harder for persons with deafblindness due to lack of access to interpreter-guide/Deafblind interpreting services or family members who could interpret. In addition, personal protective equipment (PPE), such as masks and gloves, obstructed communication. For some persons with deafblindness, phones and digital communications were simply not possible or were inaccessible due to a lack of access to assistive or accessible technologies
  • Guidance for the public was not always realistic for persons with deafblindness who rely on touch and close proximity to communicate. People often reacted negatively when persons with deafblindness did not follow social distancing guidance due to their communication methods
  • Meeting platforms used for remote working, health appointments, or education often did not include captioning, speech-to-text technology, or interpretation, limiting participation. In addition, safety, confidentiality, and individual support to use online systems were lacking
  • Lack of community outreach to check on individuals with high support needs[iii].

 

[i] Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, A/RES/61/106, 13 December 2006, Article 11; Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Special Envoy of the United Nations Secretary-General on Disability and Accessibility, Joint Statement: Persons with Disabilities and COVID-19, 1 April 2020

[ii] United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Disability Inclusive Disaster Risk Reduction and Emergency Situations, https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/issues/disability-inclusive-disaster-risk-reduction-and-emergency-situations.html, accessed June 2022.

[iii] Dhale, Zamir. “Experiences of Deafblind Persons during the CVODI-19 Outbreak”, NewsZhook, reprinted on https://www.internationaldisabilityalliance.org/content/experiences-deafblind-amid-covid-19-outbreak, accessed October 2021; International Disability Alliance, “COVID-19 in Mexico: the experience of deafblind children told by their mothers”, Voices of People with Disabilities during COVID-19 Outbreak series, https://www.internationaldisabilityalliance.org/deafblind-mexico, accessed October 2021; International Disability Alliance, “Reaching Persons with Deafblindness during the Covid-19 pandemic”, Voices of People with Disabilities during COVID-19 Outbreak series, https://www.internationaldisabilityalliance.org/covid-deafblind, accessed October 2021; Wittich, W. et al, “Living with deafblindness during COVID-19: An international webinar to facilitate global knowledge transfer”, British Journal of Visual Impairment, 2021, p. 1-13.

Good Practices

The approaches for supporting persons with deafblindness depend very much on the nature of the emergency, the duration, the circumstances within the country and local area, as well as the needs of individuals. However, there are some good practices that apply to a range of situations. Some key elements include:

 

  • Reasonable accommodations for persons with deafblindness in emergencies are immediate, tailored solutions for individuals. For example, access to interpreter-guides/Deafblind interpreters, and using tactile forms of communication are common reasonable accommodations for persons with deafblindness. Because reasonable accommodations combat discrimination, they are not subject to suspension in emergencies. However, if a request cannot be reasonably accommodated, alternatives should be sought
  • Accessible information (e.g., large print, Braille, captioning, accessible social media, etc.) and accessible distribution sites, transportation, and facilities (e.g., in refugee camps). Persons with deafblindness may also require access to assistive devices or technologies that were left behind, such as a Braille machine, red and white cane, hearing aid, etc.
  • Community outreach to identify those that require additional protection or help. For example, those that cannot go places, such as distribution sites, evacuation routes, etc., and those who require additional care or support for basic needs
  • Maintaining access to essential services, such as health care, education, rehabilitation, food, medicine, interpreter-guide/Deafblind interpreting services, access to carers for basic needs, etc. If services are adapted due to the emergency, they may require further adaptations or reasonable accommodations for individuals. For example, teleservices for health appointments may not be possible for all persons with deafblindness
  • Adaptable public guidance from authorities (e.g., on evacuation routes, public health and/or safety guidance, etc.). This is to ensure that blanket guidance does not exclude or harm persons with deafblindness. For example, guidance during the COVID-19 pandemic to socially distance prevented persons with deafblindness from communicating. Reasonable accommodations for exemptions to official guidance may be necessary for persons with deafblindness
  • Guidance and training for frontline staff on the requirements of persons with deafblindness and on how to communicate with them. Because this is a low-incidence group, frontline staff should be armed with information on what to do if they do not know how to help persons with deafblindness
  • Safeguarding measures to protect persons with deafblindness from violence, abuse, exploitation, or other harms. For example, enabling access to live assistance, awareness raising of frontline workers on safeguarding, responding quickly to safeguarding concerns, expediting family reunions, ensuring access to accessible redress mechanisms, etc.
  • Identification cards that provide basic information, including that the person is deafblind and their methods of communication, as well as any other essential information, such as medications, medical conditions, or contact details of family members. This will help persons with deafblindness to interact with first responders, hospitals, and others on the frontlines
  • Participation of OPDs of persons with deafblindness in emergency response and planning to ensure they are not left behind and to help establish protocols for communicating with persons with deafblindness in emergencies. Umbrella OPDs that serve as focal points in emergencies should ensure that persons with deafblindness are included in the consultation, planning, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation of humanitarian programmes and represented in committees or bodies responding to emergencies. This may require meetings, consultations, or conferences to take stock of the challenges and interventions from recent emergencies[i].

 

In addition, persons with deafblindness should be included in recovery programmes, as they may be disproportionately affected by the social, economic, psychosocial, and logistical impacts of emergencies[ii].

 

[i] Dhale, Zamir. “Experiences of Deafblind Persons during the CVODI-19 Outbreak”, NewsZhook, reprinted on https://www.internationaldisabilityalliance.org/content/experiences-deafblind-amid-covid-19-outbreak, accessed October 2021; Inter-Agency Standing Committee, Guidelines: Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action, July 2019; International Disability Alliance, “COVID-19 in Mexico: the experience of deafblind children told by their mothers”, Voices of People with Disabilities during COVID-19 Outbreak series, https://www.internationaldisabilityalliance.org/deafblind-mexico, accessed October 2021; International Disability Alliance, “Reaching Persons with Deafblindness during the Covid-19 pandemic”, Voices of People with Disabilities during COVID-19 Outbreak series, https://www.internationaldisabilityalliance.org/covid-deafblind, accessed October 2021; Sense International, COVID-19 Rapid Response for People with Deafblindness, their Families, and Schools in Kenya: Final Evaluation Report, March 2021; Sense International Romania, Abstracts: Deafblindness During the Pandemic, 2020; Wittich, W. et al, “Living with deafblindness during COVID-19: An international webinar to facilitate global knowledge transfer”, British Journal of Visual Impairment, 2021, p. 1-13.

[ii] Inter-Agency Standing Committee, Guidelines: Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action, July 2019, p. 19-21.

Recommendations

Governments

  • Legally recognise deafblindness and classify persons with deafblindness as a vulnerable group in emergencies that require prioritisation and targeted support
  • Prioritise persons with deafblindness in evacuation and establish protocols for ensuring support during evacuations, especially in regions prone to natural disasters
  • Develop humanitarian, disaster risk reduction, and emergency service plans to establish accessibility standards and to enable reasonable accommodations for persons with deafblindness, including access to interpreter-guides/Deafblind interpreters, accessible information, and guidance to frontline staff on how to communicate with persons with deafblindness. This may include reasonable accommodations to official guidance.
  • Include OPDs of persons with deafblindness in consultation processes for emergency planning and implementation
  • Train frontline staff (e.g., first responders, humanitarian agencies, etc.) on the requirements of persons with deafblindness in emergencies, including safeguarding measures
  • Maintain access to essential services during emergencies and identify interpreter-guides/Deafblind interpreters as an essential service
  • Work with NGOs, OPDs, and others to encourage community-based supports and checks on persons with deafblindness during emergencies

 

OPDs and NGOs

  • Include OPDs of persons with deafblindness in actions on emergency planning for persons with disabilities
  • Develop community-based solutions for checking on and supporting persons with deafblindness in the community during emergencies

 

Donors and Research Institutes

  • Conduct research on the situation of persons with deafblindness in emergencies and humanitarian action to better understand the impacts and ensure research on persons with disabilities in emergencies includes persons with deafblindness.
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