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Portrait of Sherell Farmer

Sherell Farmer '22

Meet the ILR Family

What’s the title of your thesis?

Improving Disability Access to the Right to Be Rescued: Using the Tools of Community, Government & Universal Design

What’s your paper about?

People with disabilities are often considered "expected losses" when a natural disaster strikes, leading to harm befalling them being seen as "inevitable," “tragic,” and “unpreventable." This thesis seeks to point out the problematic nature of this idea and, in doing so, poses recommendations to ensure that all people may make it out safely in a natural disaster. These recommendations give people with disabilities a seat at the emergency planning table.

Why did you choose this topic?

I originally became interested in my thesis after taking Intersectionality in Disabilities Studies with Professor Allison Weiner Heinemann and Professor LaWanda Cook. In this class, we talked about environmental injustice and the tragic story of Benilda Caixeta, who asked for help as Hurricane Katrina came but never saw it. She was forced to ride out the storm in her wheelchair, where she would, unfortunately, drown after exclaiming that the "water was coming in" on the phone with her friend, who heard her last breaths.