Effective Emergency Management: Making Improvements for Communities and People with Disabilities

Source: National Council on Disability, August 12, 2009

From the press release:
The National Council on Disability (NCD) today released its report Effective Emergency Management: Making Improvements for Communities and People with Disabilities, calling on federal, state, and local authorities to make sweeping changes in emergency management practices for people with disabilities.

According to NCD Chairperson John R. Vaughn, "NCD's first evaluation of government work in this area was published in a 2005 report Saving Lives: Including People with Disabilities in Emergency Planning. That report laid out a scenario of a major hurricane striking the Gulf Coast and outlined steps that the federal government should take to include people with disabilities in emergency preparedness, disaster relief, and homeland security. Hurricane Katrina struck four months later."

As a result of NCD's work, the 2006 Homeland Security Appropriations bill's Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act (H.R. 5441) required Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to employ a National Disability Coordinator and to interact, consult, and coordinate with NCD on a list of eight other activities.