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Disability Rights Texas has opened its 2025 Disaster Resilience Survey to the disability community, and it invites public participation and suggestions through May.
The annual survey was started after the deadly February 2021 winter storm.
Stephanie Duke, supervising attorney and disaster resilience coordinator at Disability Rights Texas, said that in previous surveys, one of the main issues has been power.
“Those that are on life-sustaining, durable medical equipment obviously need to have options for backup power, whether that's getting to an emergency sheltering operation that can help with that, or understanding internal battery life, or options to have a backup power source," she explained. "If they're low income, what are the options there to get emergency backup power sources if you can't afford the generator? Stuff like that.”
Duke said other issues addressed in past surveys have concerned housing, including when an individual’s place of residence is no longer habitable.
She said resolving these issues will take time, but Disability Rights Texas has developed a few solutions, like ensuring people on Medicare waivers in Texas have options.
“It used to be you only had options for gas-powered generators, which obviously is limiting if you have physical impairments, or if you have oxygen. It's not safe if you're a renter having a generator," she added. "So one of the things that did happen is the labor programs now allow for backup power sources. It's not explicit for gas-powered, so that gives people some choices, right? You still have to go through the process and requesting that through your ISP and getting it approved and procurement ... but there are options for people on those waiver programs now to at least obtain some type of backup power source.”
One of the key components to disaster preparedness is communicating the needs with local emergency management and get a better understanding of what resources are available.
Duke said the surveys have been successful in determining what is needed among the disability community.
“We work with some local jurisdictions that are interested in [the survey], and we're hoping to get more and more people to respond. I'd like to hope people are more prepared, but, you know, we're never ready for everything,” she said.
Duke added: “We can always learn something new and help with that advocacy and outreach and education for people to be prepared and also understand their rights. What are their rights after something happens when they are denied meaningful access? And that's something we also provide, as an agency — legal aid [with which] we ensure that rights are upheld and enforced.”
The deadline to complete the survey is May 31.
