"Up to this point people with disabilities are the target of programs but from now on I think we need to change our minds,” said Akiko Fukuda, secretary-general of the World Federation of the Deafblind. He added that “we could be an agent of change with our resource called disability," and urged the international community at the United Nations to include the perspectives of the disabled when devising disaster-preparedness plans, reports Japan Times.
The Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (WCDRR), which will take place next year in Sendai, Japan, will also address the issue of including the disabled in disaster risk reduction plans.