Stop, drop, and roll. Go to the lowest level of a building. Avoid unsafe situations. As children, we are taught what to do in emergency situations. We know when a situation becomes dangerous, and, most of the time, adults know what to do when circumstances become dire. Whether people need to evacuate the situation immediately, call 911 to get help, take shelter in a safe location, or do something else to immediately reduce the risk of danger, generally speaking, most adults know what to do in emergency situations. Most adults also are physically able to make efforts to get out of harms way and do their best to protect themselves and others in their vicinity. Of course, no emergency situation is the same and there are thousands of factors that could play into every situation. For the most part, though, adults are able to do whatever they can to resolve the issue or at least minimize risk of danger for themselves and others. Regardless of what it is, being in an emergency situation is scary for everyone. For people with disabilities or health impairments, there is often another layer of fear is added. Many times, unforeseen physical barriers are presented in crisis situations, and people with mobility limitations are faced with additional challenges.

On a Monday night late in January, just after I had finished dinner, pounding on my front door scares my worker and I. I have a video doorbell, so it was odd that whoever it was chose not to ring that. Thinking it was weird because I wasn’t expecting anyone, I quickly open my doorbell app to see who it is. We see it’s a police officer. I follow my worker to answer the door. The officer explained that there was a domestic violence situation two doors down and we needed to evacuate. After seeing me, he quickly realized that it would be really hard for me to evacuate and he said he’d be right back. The reason it’d be nearly impossible for me to evacuate was because the sidewalk was snow covered. I live on the end of a building, and if I turned one way on the sidewalk, I would have been right in the middle of the incident; if I turned the other way, I would have gotten stuck because that part of the sidewalk wasn’t plowed. The officer left for 30 seconds; in the meantime, my worker and I frantically call my mom and tell her that we were told to evacuate. He came back while we were on the phone with her. My mom explained that they could come up with an accessible van, but they’re 45 minutes away. The officer said no they don’t want anyone to come in the area and that they just wanted us to move as far away as possible from the front door. He said he’d let us know when it was all clear. A few minutes after he left, we heard a cop with a megaphone say something like, “come out with your hands behind your head. I repeat, come out with your hands behind your head.” Admittedly, that really scared me. During this time, my mom was texting with me trying to calm me down and my worker was trying to calm me down as well. In the midst of this, I was getting texts from friends asking if I was ok because they said posts on the Oshkosh police scanner page on Facebook about an incident on my block. Until that point, we still had no idea what was going on. Multiple friends said it was a stabbing. I kept texting my mom. I didn’t respond to anyone else at that point. The officer eventually came back and let us know everything was fine. The whole ordeal lasted less than an hour. I never found out what actually happened nor did I want to, but, apparently, someone faked a stabbing. For a few weeks after that incident, I was pretty freaked out. I didn’t sleep very well and my anxiety was through the roof. I was, yet again, so glad I already had a counselor at that time. The reason that I can talk about this now is because the neighbors recently moved out which has been a huge stress relief. There were other incidents with the people, so, with them gone, I’m in a much safer place.

Looking back on that incident, I was very fortunate about a few things. The first and most important one being that it happened when I had someone with me. What would have happened if it had happened during the day when I was alone? What would the officer had done? Years ago, I thought was a list with the emergency services to make them aware of my circumstances. I’m not sure what happened to that program, but they didn’t have me listed. After the recent incident, my mom called the police department just to see if there was anything we can do to be precautionary. My address is now “flagged” in their system which means if there are ever any calls to my specific address, emergency personnel would have a heads up about my circumstances (I have cerebral palsy, I use a wheelchair, I use an app on my phone to communicate, etc…). We also found out that I can text 911 if I would ever need to. Gosh forbid, I would ever need to get emergency help, I now know that I can text 911. Second, I was really fortunate that it didn’t happen in the middle of the night. I don’t know what I would have done if an officer pounded on my door at 2a.m. Would I open the door by pressing the button on my bed table? Probably not because I’d be in bed, and the cop wouldn’t know what to do or how to communicate with me. I’d probably text and call my parents and then they’d call the police department and explain my circumstances. It’d be a mess! I now realize that the incident could have been much worse. I’m thankful that I was very fortunate with the timing and that nothing ended up happening, but, admittedly, it shook me pretty good.

I’ve only had a few encounters with paramedics in my lifetime. One was when I was just a few hours old and was transported to a different hospital. I obviously don’t remember that one. Another one about ten years ago when my parents and I were in Florida. It was the first time I had the severe stomach pains. We went to a stand-alone emergency room on the beach. I ended up needing to be admitted, so an ambulance had to take me to an actual hospital. My mom rode with me, so she communicated my needs to the paramedics. The other time I dealt with paramedics and firefighters was my second year at UW-Whitewater. I was in Economics class on the third floor of the business building when the power went out. It was quickly realized that it was campus-wide, so classes were canceled for the rest of the day. There was only one problem—the elevator obviously wasn’t going to work, so how was I going to get out of the building? All of my classmates left, but my professor stayed with me. I don’t remember exactly how it came down, but he must have contacted the Center for Students with Disabilities (CSD) to let them know we needed assistance. I don’t believe that I had a cell phone yet, but one of my good friends who worked with me knew where I was. She went to my dorm room, grabbed my manual wheelchair, and brought it to the business building. If I remember correctly, it took about two hours (because other students were stranded as well), but eventually a crew of seven or eight paramedics and firefighters showed up along with someone from CSD. They had a rescue chair to put me on to carry me down the stairs. At this point, I was laughing hysterically because it was made into such a big commotion. Everyone thought I was freaking out because I was scared, but my friend had to explain to them that I was fine; I was just laughing really hard. They carried me down and put me in my manual chair. I spent the day in my friend’s room until the power came back on. It’s one of my favorite memories from college, and I still occasionally tell it when I do presentations. I laugh every time.

Living with significant physical limitations can sometimes lead to some pretty interesting situations. While most of the time, I feel safe and confident in my surroundings, there are times when I’m scared because I don’t have the physical ability to protect myself. I admit, as I get older, I find myself becoming more of a scaredy cat in different situations. Maybe it’s age; maybe it’s anxiety. I just have to try to be as cautious as I can be and be prepared for life’s twists and turns!

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