Are you a Deaf person who's survived Hurricane Sandy? Have you been struggling in the cleanup? Has access been great for you? How are you managing? Who's helping Deaf people? I'm watching police go house to house and knock on doors and wondering if anyone's giving them advice on finding Deaf survivors. Please share your stories in the comments; would love to hear.
America has a checkered past with emergency preparedness and Deaf people. During 9/11 the Red Cross and several volunteers provided access for Deaf survivors of the tragedy. A few years later, when Katrina hit, emergency announcements weren't captioned or accessible for Deaf people.
New York's Mayor Bloomberg has been complimented for his office's use of an ASL interpreter (check out the review and video from Xpressive Hands) but New York is only one of many states. I wish some organization was tracking and reporting on response to disasters and how that response supports the Deaf community, but until then, there's always blogger.
Personally, I survived pretty well–but two family members (four if you count the dogs) were trapped in Jersey without electricity or support until we were able to bring them home. Deaf or hearing, we humans all watch out for each other, and those stories are also astounding.
2 comments:
thanks for your blog - we too are most interested for reports - from anyone who is deaf, deafened, or has a hearing loss, their families, neighbors.
perhaps you also saw there was no access online via quality realtime captioning - very concerned about this, for all regions.
lauren
http://ccacaptioning.org; volunteer advocates
My friend C.L. on Staten Island has lost her home due to the storm. I wonder if anyone's raising money to support Deaf survivors of Sandy?
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