Upstate NY CERT Unit Breaking Barriers

There is a CERT unit in upstate New York that is breaking barriers and changing opinions. Like all CERT volunteers, they want to help make a difference in their community.

All but five of the nineteen members of this unit are people with disabilities. Seven use wheelchairs, four are blind, and others have multiple disabilities.

I'm especially proud to be a member of this CERT unit. It was formed because we were tired of the image of people with disabilities as helpless burdens always in need of service. We wanted to show that people with disabilities could be assets to their communities and make a difference in the lives of others.

Some of us had already been working with our county's Office of Emergency Management, advising them about emergency preparedness for people with disabilities, reaching out to us, and including our community in drills and disaster simulations. The logical next step was to form a CERT unit.

The Center for Disability Rights, the Regional Center for Independent Living, and the Monroe County Office of Emergency Management came together to make that happen.

Those of us with disabilities had extensive involvement and input into the design and structure of the class. Two major questions arose that were addressed by the time of our graduation: 1) Would CERT instructors be comfortable teaching a class full of people with various disabilities, and 2) Would the CERT curriculum have to be modified to accommodate our needs?

We found that there was no need to change the curriculum. CERT training materials are uniform, meaning that the same material is taught nationally. The Center for Disability Rights had the entire CERT training manual and other materials put into alternative format such as Braille, large print, and CD, so that people who are blind or visually impaired could use it.

CERT instructors were patient and willing to listen to advice and ideas. Accommodations for blind students included describing videos and Power Point presentations, and identifying oneself before speaking. They learned to apply splints, take pulses, and other skills by touch. They teamed up with sighted classmates to learn basic fire suppression techniques.

Students using wheelchairs learned basic search-and-rescue, and cribbing methods. We learned to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and other forms of first aid from our wheelchairs. We came to see them not only as mobility devices, but effective tools to help us carry out our tasks.

Our CERT class proved that people with disabilities could do practically anything that the average CERT volunteer could.

Graduation was an emotional experience. Top administrators and officials from the CERT program came from Washington, DC to speak to our class. We then spoke to them about the importance of including people with disabilities and our experiences as part of the CERT curriculum, and in training materials so that people could see that we could be on the giving, as well as the receiving end of help. We presented the top CERT brass with a Braille copy of all of the CERT training materials. They were excited to have this, as it never occurred to them to convert materials to this format.

Today, members of our unit continue to work with the county to increase the participation of people with disabilities in the CERT program. Some of my classmates helped to create a video for first responders on proper handling of adaptive equipment during rescue. I am taking advanced courses in National Incident Management Systems so that I can join our county's Medical Reserve Corps. It is made up of volunteers from health and other fields to strengthen our preparedness for emergencies.

Due to the success of our unit, another class of CERT members with disabilities will soon begin training.

Source:

Personal knowledge