Re: EIIF draft needs unified person

On 2008-12-04, at 1611, paola.dimaio@gmail.com wrote:

> along those lines, 'people' is very generic
> I think we can agree that women, children, elderly and disabled  
> people may all have
> specialised EM requirements. although these can be indirectly  
> captured by their
> ID records, i wonder if they should be emphasised anywhere
> i cant remember if we have a slot for 'disability' in the  
> attributes, I assume so


I think that it isn't so much about capturing disability, rather it is  
focused on needs. The disability itself is not important, rather it is  
the persons needs during an emergency e.g. whilst a person may be  
wheelchair-bound for whatever reason, one of their 'needs' would be  
'assistance with evacuations' - but this need may also be relevant for  
people that aren't in wheelchairs.

I believe a needs-based approach to disability would be far more  
robust than recording the type of disability, and this is perhaps  
supported by the increasing use of the term 'special needs' by  
emergency managers to capture this.

Cheers Gav