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Sixty-one million adults in America live with a disability as of 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Disabilities come in many forms and are essentially any condition, mentally or physically, affecting one’s ability to complete certain activities.

According to a 2019 American Community Survey posted by the U.S. Census Bureau, 6% of children in Louisiana have a disability. This makes it one of the states with the greatest percentage. In total, 3,145 out of 72,840 children under 18 in America have a disability. This is 4.3%.

It begs the question, in a hurricane-prone state like Louisiana, what does it mean to have a disability in times of disaster?

In most ways, children with disabilities are affected and experience disasters like any other child, says Laura Stough, professor of Educational Psychology and assistant director at the Center on Disability and Development at Texas A&M University.

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