Dealing with a massive wildfire in one’s backyard is hard enough when you can hear, see and walk. When you’re in a wheelchair or visually- or hearing-impaired, the challenge is Herculean.

People with disabilities made the point repeatedly Thursday at a meeting hosted by The Independence Center to discuss what worked — and what didn’t — for them as the Waldo Canyon fire forced many of them to evacuate. Officials with the Independence Center and the Rocky Mountain ADA Center hope to use the stories to improve emergency response procedures and operations for the region’s disabled community.

One overarching complaint from people with hearing impairments is that local TV stations did little at first to meet their needs. Andrea Reeves, who owns a sign language interpreting agency, said she received “panic texts” from hearing-impaired people who were upset that the stations weren’t providing interpreters or closed captioning. One TV station had a scroll on its broadcast to convey information, but people said scrolls don’t provide real-time information.

“One station said it was not their responsibility; it was the mayor’s,” Reeves said.

A few days into the fire, KKTV took Reeves up on an offer to provide a volunteer sign-language interpreter. The station also began doing real-time closed captioning, which earned praise from those at the meeting.

KRDO and KOAA also accepted volunteer interpreters, one speaker said.

John Weaver, whose adult daughter uses a wheelchair and lives at home, talked about the need for a place where people with disabilities can go in a disaster. He and his daughter tried to go to a Red Cross shelter at Cheyenne Mountain High School, but it didn’t have a bed to accommodate her. They ended up at a home where his daughter spent three days sleeping in her wheelchair.

“Lots of various agencies have designated evacuation sites, but there’s nothing for my daughter, because she lives at home,” Weaver said.

A few people with visual impairments were upset that Metro Mobility didn’t notify them when bus service was suspended, and one woman raised this issue: What do you do when the electricity is out and you have 15 devices that must be refrigerated or plugged in?

In attendance were Bret Waters, emergency management director for Colorado Springs, and representatives from the Pikes Peak Chapter of the American Red Cross and Manitou Springs Police Department, including Chief Joseph Ribeiro. All pledged to do more to work with the disabled community and learn from the Waldo Canyon fire.

“We’re not perfect,” said Tom Gonzales, CEO of the local Red Cross. “One of the things we’re going to work very hard on in the future is a whole-community approach.”