Don’t touch my wheelchair: Responding to people with assistive medical devices in a crisis

Assistive medical devices aren’t just pieces of equipment. They are often felt as a physical extension of a person’s body. This session will familiarize mobile crisis responders with different kinds of assistive devices and their functions, and how to respond when they encounter them. It will also teach responders to use disability etiquette that’s reimagined for emergency situations. Participants will also learn how to recognize wholeness, one of the ten principles of disability justice, for people with assistive medical devices.

Learning objectives:

• Identify the different kinds of assistive medical devices and their functions
• Apply disability etiquette in mobile crisis response
• Reframe the concept of “wholeness” using the disability justice model

Bio:

Rachel is a Health Equity Strategist in the Division of Emergency Preparedness and Response at the Minnesota Department of Health. She worked on disability rights and inclusion projects for UNICEF, the US Agency for International Development, and several nonprofit organizations. She has a Master of Public Policy degree from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota.