Advocating for Safety for Students with Disabilities
September is Emergency Preparedness Month, and this is really important to me as a highschooler with a disability. In high school, we experience a lot of scary emergencies from fire drills to bomb threats and potential school shootings. This can be especially scary for students with disabilities because schools are not always prepared to help us during these emergencies.
Last year I participated in EmpowHer Camp, a yearlong program for young women with disabilities where we learn about emergency preparedness. One requirement of the camp is that we create an emergency preparedness project that we have to complete over the next year. My project was getting evacuation chairs into my school.
I chose this project because at EmpowHer Camp last summer we discussed emergency plans for disabled people. Throughout those conversations I realized the importance of safe evacuation plans for people with mobility disabilities and other limitations. These conversations helped me to realize that, quite frankly, my school’s safety plans sucked. Instead of ensuring that I could evacuate safely, their plan was to leave me in a stairwell and hope that someone would come to help me. I realized that I could fix this and that I could be the change that students with disabilities needed. So, with help from my mentor, I started planning my project.
My first step was to email my principal to advocate for our school to get evacuation chairs. In my email, I explained that an evacuation chair is a mobility device that can help people with mobility disabilities and other disabilities get downstairs easily during fires and other emergencies. Unfortunately, after a week, my principal had not replied. My mentor and I decided to try to email her again, but after she didn’t reply again, we decided to change our strategy.
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Next, we decided to email the president of the PTA. Finally, our efforts paid off, and I was invited to speak to the Board of Education. During the Board of Education meeting, I talked about how important getting these evacuation chairs in my school would be. I also talked about how important it would be getting the evacuation chairs not only in my school, but every school in the district. After the meeting, I learned that my advocacy worked and the evacuation chairs weren’t just ordered for my school, but they were ordered for every school in my district!
When I was told this news, I was super excited. But I knew that my work was not done yet. I wanted to make sure that the school and the district knew how to use the chairs properly, so I talked to my principal and asked if I could be a part of the training. When she said yes, I immediately started to create training with my mentor. Next, I went to Washington, D.C. to advocate on a national level. I met with my senators and advocated for evacuation chairs to be in every school in New York State because every student should be and feel safe in their schools. Lastly, I was recognized on a national level because I won the Strong Wheeled Together Award from the United Spinal Association.
It feels really good, knowing that I made a difference in the Disability Community. Now the students and faculty will feel safer during emergency evacuations thanks to my advocacy.
Giana Bisnett is a 15-year-old girl who is in 10th grade and lives in Rochester, New York. Giana likes painting, ceramics, and doing makeup.
For more Emergency Preparedness Resources, check out our Emergency Preparedness Booklet.