Earthquake and the Educational Needs of People With Physical Disabilities and Associated Groups: A Qualitative Study

Objective: People with disabilities are highly vulnerable during disasters and their mortality is higher than normal population. The causes of this vulnerability, in addition to the physical problems and movement limitations, can be lack of their knowledge in facing with disasters. Such deficiencies can adversely affect their preparedness surviving in the disastrous situations and cause adverse consequences. Hence, this study aimed to identify the educational needs of people with physical disabilities and related groups in earthquakes, through understanding their views. Materials & Methods: The study was done in a qualitative method. Participants were selected from people with physical disability who had an experience of earthquake, literate, and in the age range of 18-60 years, through purposive sampling in two methods of maximum variation and snowballing. Semi-structured interviews were used for data collection and data saturation was reached with the entry of 18 eligible individuals. Thematic analysis was applied for data analysis assisted by MAXQDA software v. 10. Results: The participants stated that education was an essential factor for improving their preparedness for earthquake. The educational needs were categorized as two main themes. The first main theme included two subthemes, 1. basic educational needs such as saving life and prevention of secondary disabilities, keeping calm, stress management and decision making; as well as 2. empowerment educational needs such as coping with disabilities in critical situations, providing relief to other people in case of having enough ability, and educating other people with disabilities. The second theme included two subthemes, 1. general educational needs related to families and public, such as rescue of people with disabilities, saving self-life and prevention of disabilities, proper relief to public for prevention of disabilities, accompanying and psychological support of people with disabilities; and 2. the specialized educational needs for relief workers and disaster managers, including relief to people with disabilities, prevention of disability and injury while rescuing public, familiarity with different groups of people with disabilities and their needs, and considering the needs of people with disabilities in the response measures. Conclusion: Based on the findings, the educational needs of people with physical disabilities and related groups, emerged in the form of preserving life, health and disability prevention, empowerment and improving the quality of services in the earthquake. Fulfilling the educational needs can increase the preparedness of these people in facing with earthquakes, although it requires the development of standard and practical educational programs by obtaining their opinions and implementing it in the situations before the disasters. On the other hand, considering that no serious and principled action has been taken so far in the field of education of people with disabilities, it is necessary for the planners and policymakers to formulate specialized policies in accordance with the countrychr('39')s conditions. This measures can be effective in reducing mortality and improving the health of these people in disaster situations.