Disability Futures

The study, Disorientated and Immobile: The Experience of People with Visual Impairments During and After the Christchurch, New Zealand 2010 and 2011 Earthquakes, was recently published in the Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness. It involved 12 face-to-face interviews conducted after the September 2010 quake, but prior to the fatal 2011 February quake. Then, in February 2012, seven of the original participants were re-interviewed about how more than a year of earthquakes had affected their lives. Three staff members from the Blind Foundation were also interviewed in April 2011. The paper was co-authored by Dr Good and Dr Phibbs, along with Kerry Williamson, a research assistant from the Ministry of Justice.

Dr Phibbs says the research, a first of its kind in the world, highlighted the importance of communication and technology, personal and agency support, orientation and mobility, health, rebuilding independence, rehabilitation, coping and resilience.

“Participants demonstrated creative problem-solving abilities, resilience and community spirit. However our findings indicate that older visually impaired people are among the most vulnerable in disasters, and more work needs to be done to prepare them,” she says.

“I could hear crockery falling and breaking in the living room and in the kitchen and I thought ‘I don’t know what to do.’ I’ve been told many, many times during an earthquake go and stand under a door jamb but I couldn’t even get there.” – Anonymous research participant.

“This is the first time people with vision disabilities experiences of sequential earthquake activity has been tracked both before and after a catastrophic disaster anywhere in the world, and the results of our study provide a rare insight into the impact of disasters on those who are older and living with vision disabilities,” Dr Phibbs says.