Meetings

Public and private community organizations that participate in health promotion and outreach activities need to be aware of the importance of including people with disabilities in program initiatives and activities.
- HPPD Task Force

Angie Wilkerson,
Ms. Wheelchair Virginia 2005

Health Promotion and outreach activities are particularly important to people with disabilities. According to Disability Among Virginians: An Analysis of BRFSS Data 2000,2001,2002, a person with a disability is more likely than a person without a disability to develop a secondary health condition, such as high blood pressure or cholesterol, arthritis, and diabetes. One of the goals of the HPPD Project is that media campaigns promoting health promotion and disease prevention outreach programs will reach all Virginians, including people with disabilities. There is a need for community education that will enlighten organizations, businesses, and citizens to the value of including people with disabilities in the planning of all activities.

Several disability organizations are doing great things to raise awareness of important issues concerning the lives of people living with disabilities. Many of these organizations can be found on the HPPD Task Force and Links pages. Ms. Wheelchair Virginia brings disabilities to the forefront, with media and event appearances. The Ms. Wheelchair Virginia organization is dedicated to advocacy and focuses on educating the public about the accomplishments, achievements, and needs of the disabled.

When planning health promotion and outreach in your area, talk to several disability organizations, they will know the best ways to reach people with varied disabilities. Your outreach strategies and media campaigns may need to be adapted, depending on whether your community is rural or urban and your target audience. For example, the local community access cable channel may work in one rural area; the local talk radio station may be a better choice in another. Many advocacy groups and non-profit organizations have listservs and may be willing to announce events.

People with sensory impairments, such as deafblindness, blindness or deafness and hearing loss, can be more affected by social isolation than those without sensory impairments. When planning events, always reach out to these populations as it takes very little effort to incorporate their special needs.

The Virginia Department for the Blind and Vision Impaired is an excellent resource for finding out more about these disabilities. Another resource that is favored bye those who are blind or vision impaired is the Virginia Voice, which is an audio reading and information. Virginia Voice provides a bulletin board section in their programming for community announcements and services in the Greater Richmond and Tidewater areas, however can be accessed across the state via their Internet site. There are also providers in the Harrisonburg and Roanoke areas. Most of these providers are affiliated with International Association of Audio Information Services.

People who are deaf, deafblind or hard of hearing face communication access challenges every day. Very few businesses and health care providers have a sign language interpreter on staff, nor do they offer assistive listening devices.  The Virginia Department for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing provides many services and can arrange for sign language interpreters for events around the state.