Building a Resilient Community for a Person with Disability through Integration of Accessibility Issues with DRR in Dhaka City

Disabled people are often neglected by the state, policymakers, community and even family, though they should be provided equal opportunities to develop their lives. A PwD (Person with Disabilities) has the right to access any facility in society. Regrettably, they are overlooked in our community, especially in terms of accessibility to infrastructure such as pedestrian pathways, vehicular circulation, public buildings, and other amenities. As a disaster-prone country, Bangladesh frequently experiences natural and anthropogenic disasters. In the event of a disaster, they should be provided with essential facilities to overcome the situation; however, they are not even included in Bangladesh's DRR (Disaster Risk Reduction) policy. In major urban areas like Dhaka, disasters such as fires, earthquakes, waterlogging, and building collapses pose a significant threat to city residents. These events affect PwD much more adversely than non-disabled people, and they pose a significant barrier to the rescue, evacuation, and resettlement of PwD. Precedent research indicates that a disabled person has less priority in DRR because there is no integration between disability and disaster management issues, and there is no proper execution or monitoring of the existing legislation either. The methodology of this research will include these three steps: a) analysis of the existing policy, rules, regulations, and guidelines regarding the accessibility of PwD in different infrastructures.; b) analysing the implementation of those policies and the present condition of PwD accessibility, especially in disaster events; and c) suggesting guidelines to include the issues of PwD in developing an efficient and inclusive disaster management policy in urban areas. By analysing existing policies and good practices that consider disability in DRR, this research will provide firsthand evidence of the crucial role of PwD inclusion in holistic DRR interventions.