As the Randolph County plan garnered national attention, disability rights advocates were forced to defend the need for accessible polling places at all.
The lack of attention to "disability" or "impairment" in general may have a simple explanation: there were no such concepts to attend to until 19th century scientific thinking put variations in human function and form into categories of abnormality and deviance.
Broader discussion within the humanitarian community, efforts to advocate for more attention to disability, and targeted research on disaster and disability can all serve to advance the goal that national and international responses to future disasters will be characterized by increased attention to the needs of all PWD.
Through a process of inductive analysis, we identified three core themes related to disability and PWD: 1) Attention given to disability: disability on and off the map, 2) Challenges to addressing the needs of PWD in relief efforts, and 3) Reconstruction, social realities, and changing perceptions.
Attention to disability ethics literature may help bioethicists and clinicians become acquainted with the obligations we have to support people with disabilities.
At a recent symposium honoring the legacy of Jacobus tenBroek, founder of the National Federation of the Blind, Dr. Silvers recalled one of the things that had led her to turn her attention to disability rights.
London 2012 has certainly brought an unprecedented amount of attention to disability sport and four-time Paralympic gold medallist Marc Woods has expressed concern that this will impact on the performances of some of the sport's higher-profile stars.
One hopes that an appeal to justice for the sake of justice is enough to compel Christians to pay attention to disability issues; if not, then raw self-interest just might.
Although the Haiti earthquake response incorporated more attention to disability than in most prior disasters (38), there were still significant unmet needs (9, 24).
