People with disabilities are being included in emergency drills — and exposing big flaws

Gene Myers | NorthJersey

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Smoke filled the train car. Men with guns came from behind, followed by police officers yelling commands to the gunmen and passengers.

The smoke wasn't real, and neither was the emergency. It was a drill run by NJ Transit in Glen Rock.

What was real, however, was the confusion Jayne Jacobson felt as one of three volunteers with a disability who took part in the November exercise. Jacobson says she is "profoundly deaf" without the aid of her cochlear implant.

The drill was among the first by the agency to include individuals with disabilities. It didn't go well.

“People were screaming as they ran onto the train," she said of officers posing as criminals.

"They were screaming at the top of their lungs that we should do something. ... and I had no idea what they were saying."

"Had this been a real emergency they probably would have shot me," she said. In the chaos, Jacobson was unable to read their lips. "Apparently you were supposed to put your hands up.”

Jacobson asked the man next to her what she was supposed to do but when he didn’t reply Jacobson was left alone “in a very difficult situation.”

NJ Transit conducted the exercise as crisis training for federal and state agencies and local first responders, much like one hosted by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey at Newark Liberty Airport in September.

Both are examples of how people with disabilities are taking part in public safety planning more often these days, said Paul Aronsohn, who is ombudsman to the governor for people with disabilities.

“There is definitely an increasing appreciation to be as inclusive as possible and that is a very good, very important thing,” Aronsohn said.

NJ Transit said Jacobson's experience is the reason it is incorporating people with disabilities in training exercises. Ed Hoff, director of ADA compliance at NJ Transit said these drills are a work in progress that give NJ Transit “an opportunity to fill in the blanks.”

It was Kelly Boyd of the state’s Office of Emergency Management who made sure a variety of disabilities were represented in both events. A wheelchair user herself, Boyd said she was riding on a train with her stepson a few years ago when his question — “If something happens on this train how will you get out?" — sparked an epiphany. Safety drills need to be more inclusive, she said.

More than 150 people from more than two dozen agencies took part in the Glen Rock drill, including police from Ridgewood, Hawthorne, Fair Lawn and the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office. They stormed the train playing the roles of good guys and bad guys while fire and EMS crews prepared to help mock victims.

Those playing the roles of commuters sat in seats wearing tags indicating injuries to be addressed. Jacobson’s tag said she was bleeding, so the EMTs pulled gauze and got to work.

No one, however, addressed her disability in these moments, she said. Had anyone faced her and looked her in the eye she could have read their lips or pantomimed that she is deaf.

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Three times first responders reenacted an active shooter scenario around her and three times Jacobson wasn’t able to glean critical information from the chaotic surroundings. On their last pass, Jacobson guessed the cops dressed as gunmen said something like “don’t look at us” because everyone else turned their heads away as they came through.

“I don’t know what New Jersey Transit could’ve done for somebody like me who doesn’t know what’s happening. It’s a big problem,” she said.

She wondered if she had a harder time that day because her “disability is invisible,” and whether obviously disabled people might be better off.

But Jose Carlos Jalandoni said that wasn’t the case. Jalandoni, a 39-year-old Leonia resident with cerebral palsy, was one of three people with disabilities to take part in the Glen Rock drill, and he also participated in the one at Newark Airport.

Like Jacobson, he also saw wasted opportunities when it came to learning how to help people with disabilities in emergencies.

Neither exercise took advantage of the insight he’s gained from living with limited mobility, said Jalandoni, who walks with a cane. While EMTs in Glen Rock tended to his pretend injury, no one offered to help him evacuate the train.

Jalandoni and Jacobson gave the transportation agencies credit for including them in the drills. But in general, Jalandoni said he felt like he was “relegated off to the side” at both locations.

In Glen Rock he was frustrated by a train step that was too high, making the train inaccessible to him without help. The airport didn’t have a handicapped-accessible bathroom available.

“I woke up super early to get to this hanger at Newark Airport and they didn’t capitalize on anybody’s disability,” he said. “If they were thinking about it, we could’ve given them a great example of how do you get somebody off a plane who is in a wheelchair.”

Leotis Sanders, chief of civil rights and diversity program at NJ Transit, said these exercises are a vehicle for learning how to adapt. Verbal commands won’t help someone with a hearing impairment find an exit on a smoke-filled train. Opening train doors as an escape route won’t help mobility-challenged riders get out of harm’s way. Planners are noting these kinds of details with each new drill.

“This was a chance for the first responders to think about this. If I am just using verbal commands I may not be speaking to everyone in the car,” said Sanders.

“Not everyone in the car is able to receive the instructions that I am giving. How do I adapt?”

Sanders said procedural changes for broader accommodations are easier to make.

“We tend to be pretty good at those, but the subtle awareness of being inclusive with all of the folks you are engaging, that is where we need to focus,” Sanders said.

Jalandoni's feedback is clear: "Look for people with disabilities," he said. "They need to evacuated fast. We need that priority, so they [first responders] need to be trained to look for that."

Jacobson would have liked more interaction with first responders, and she had a suggestion for agencies.

“Maybe, after the gunman have left, they could go through the aisles,” she said. "If they can walk around at the end and ask, How are you doing?”

Hoff and NJ Transit Police Chief Christopher Trucillo said they actively seek feedback after these training exercises and they have yet to go through comments offered during this most recent one.

Hoff, the director of ADA compliance at NJ Transit, said they will improve.

“By running these drills inclusive of people with disabilities and engaging many jurisdictions, we are increasing the awareness among first responders across the state of the diversity and functional needs of people in emergencies,” he said.

Gene Myers is a local reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: myers@northjersey.com Twitter: @myersgene