In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

Rich Cooper, a good friend of this blog, just posted an interesting and impassioned analysis/dispatch regarding the state of emergency preparedness for the disabled and special needs populations on Security Debrief. Rich highlights the release of a new report, “Emergency Preparedness for Persons with Disabilities and Special Needs,” from the American National Standards Institute’s Homeland Security Standards Panel. The report comes out of a two-day workshop held at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. February 3-4, 2009. In his post, Cooper writes: 

“Attended by well over a hundred persons from the public and private sectors, the two-day workshop was an eye-opening experience that showed the challenges, frustrations and enormous gaps that still remain in this country when it comes to addressing the needs of persons with disabilities and special needs… [I] left the two-day experience moved but extremely frustrated by what I learned…nearly 20 years after the passage of the Americans with Disability Act, we remain a nation woefully unengaged and not pro-active enough in providing some of our most vulnerable citizens with the basic essentials they need to respond to emergencies – the essentials a majority of Americans take for granted.”

Cooper also lays out some of the report findings he finds particularly disturbing, including:

• Only the State of Texas provides a 24-7, 365 means (that is fully compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act) of notifying deaf and hearing impaired persons of approaching dangers.

• When it comes to emergency preparedness exercises, persons with disabilities and special needs are often forgotten about or not included. As a result, when a real emergency occurs, some (certainly not all) first responders and building evacuation personnel don’t know what to do with those who might need extra assistance.

Despite his frustration with the current situation, Cooper does correctly note the good work of disabled advocates and others in emergency preparedness field. (In fact, I would argue that disabled community has been a model how to improve citizen preparedness for its constituency. Unfortunately, the general public does not have anyone representing its interests in this area with such focus.)

“By offering this criticism, I do not mean to undercut or denigrate the tremendous leadership and progress that has been made by many emergency managers and first responders in the public and private sectors on these issues. Their efforts are reason for praise and recognition, but much more has to be done to improve accessibility for and inclusion of the disabled and special needs populations in emergency preparedness and response efforts.”

To listen to the report or watch it in American Sign Language click here,  or view the first part on YouTube below:

A video (above) with a woman reading the first part of the “Emergency Preparedness for Persons with Disabilities and Special Needs” Report from the American National Standards Institute’s Homeland Security Standards Panel in American Sign Language.