ABSTRACT
This paper reviews current practice regarding people with disabilities in public (or communal) emergency shelter management. It shows that provision for disabled people generally fails to meet their needs and describes the main problem areas. These problems are set in the context of management and staff failings as well as underlying weaknesses in disaster management structures as a whole. The latter include outdated attitudes towards disability, the invisibility of people with disabilities to emergency officials and relief workers and misguided assumptions about the capacities of disabled people and their organizations to manage and respond to crises. The paper concludes with suggestions about how these challenges might be overcome.
