Find Information About Disaster Preparedness For People With Disabilities and Other Activity Limitations

The following information is a listing of websites we feel are great resources for information on how to prepare for disasters in our community.

Emergency Evacuation Preparedness - A Guide For People with Disabilities and Other Activity Limitations
This searchable online guide, written by June Isaacson Kailes for the Center for Disability Issues and the Health Professions, focuses on people with disabilities and activity limitations successfully evacuating buildings. Topics include how to give first responders quick crucial information, how to establish a personal support network, an ability self-assessment, and how to determine your evacuation options. Available in HTML, PDF and Word files.

S.A.F.E.T.Y. First from Easter Seals
Easter Seals has a national education initiative that will provide consumers, employers and community leaders with proper safety and evacuation guidelines for people with disabilities. The webpage offers the publication, “Are Your Tenants Safe?” (written in cooperation with the Building Owners and Managers Association), a list of safety tips, and contact information.

Fire Safety for Wheelchair Users at Work and at Home (PDF)
This booklet by the United Spinal Association (formerly Eastern Paralyzed Veterans Association) helps people with mobility disabilities learn about fire safety, plan ahead for fire emergencies, and be aware of their own capabilities and limitations.

Fire Risks for the Deaf or Hard of Hearing (PDF)
Fire Risks for the Blind or Visually Impaired (PDF)
Fire Risks for the Mobility Impaired (PDF)
Fire Risks for Older Adults (PDF)
This series of four U.S. Fire Administration reports, available in PDF and text formats, discusses the increased fire risks for several disability-affected populations, and includes prevention guidelines for consumers and tips for fire service professionals.

ADA Design Requirements for Accessible Egress
The Access Board is an independent Federal agency devoted to accessibility for people with disabilities. The Board's ADA Accessibility Guidelines (ADAAG), which primarily cover new construction and alterations, include specifications for accessible means of egress, emergency alarms, and signage.

Nassau County Emergency Preparedness Brochures
Prepared by the Nassau Office of Emergency Management in Nassau County, New York, these brochures include disaster checklists, guidelines for service animals, and other pertinent information for Nassau County residents with and without disabilities. Although some of the information contained in these brochures is specific to the locality, these materials in general serve as a model for other communities interested in educating all residents on what to do to prepare for an emergency.


Checklists

Emergency Evacuation Procedures for Employees with Disabilities
The Job Accommodation Network (JAN) offers this in-depth list of suggestions to prepare office emergency evacuation procedures. Included are links to information on accessible alarms and evacuation equipment. You can print out a Word version of the document which is formatted like a checklist.

Basic Tips in Emergency Preparedness for Seniors and People with Disabilities
This webpage provides some checklists and useful Q & A from the Bay Area Emergency Preparedness Coalition.

The following checklists were developed by the Independent Living Resource Center of San Francisco, with support from the American Red Cross Northern California Disaster Preparedness Response Network. Originally designed for earthquake preparedness, they offer useful disability preparedness information for any kind of emergency.

Tips for All People With Disabilities

Tips for People with Mobility Disabilities

Tips for People With Communication and Speech Related Disabilities

Tips for People With Psychiatric Disabilities

Tips for People With Cognitive Disabilities

Tips for People Who Are Hearing Impaired

Tips for People With Visual Disabilities

Tips for People with Environmental Illness or Chemical Sensitivities

Tips for People Who Use Life Support Systems (Dialysis, Respirator, Oxygen, Suction, Intravenous Pump or Infusion Therapy)

Tips for Service Animals and Pet Owners

Tips for Creating an Emergency Health Information Card


Websites

PrepareNow.Org
This website, created by a consortium of San Francisco Bay Area agencies, offers preparedness information for people with disabilities and other “vulnerable populations”, including seniors and non-English-speakers. The resources are offered in several different languages, and are useful for community-based organizations, local government, neighborhoods, and families.

DP2: Disabled People and Disaster Planning
This information was compiled by a California group addressing accessibility problems that many people with disabilities experienced after the Northridge Earthquake of 1994. Within the group were individuals with disabilities and individuals from the disaster planning and response professions. Although this information originally addresses earthquakes, it also applies to other kinds of disaster preparedness. It covers: preparing when a disaster is predicted, emergency shelter accessibility, training rescue workers and law enforcement to assist people with disabilities, evacuating wheelchair users, and accessible post-disaster communications and services.

Disaster Preparedness for People with Disabilities by June Kailes
Although much of the information - offered in both English and Spanish - focuses on earthquake safety, it has significant applicability for all types of disaster preparedness for people with disabilities. Much of the information is also helpful in preparing for emergencies and disasters such as power outages, fires, floods, hurricanes, nuclear power plant accidents, tornados, tsunamis, volcanoes, winter storms and very cold or very hot weather. This website also provides links to other publications on disaster preparedness.

HELPU Fire and Life Safety
This not-for-profit organization offers many online documents advising people with disabilities themselves on disaster mitigation, preparedness and safety. Provided are detailed evacuation tips for people with a variety of disabilities, fire safety materials for both adults and children with disabilities, hazardous chemicals information, hurricane preparedness checklists, and suggestions for making refuges accessible. Leslie Little, who pioneered the invention of the accessible fire extinguisher, heads this organization.


PowerPoint Presentation

Emergency Evacuation Planning: A PowerPoint Presentation from the 2002 Perspectives on Employment of Persons with Disabilities Conference, December 2002
A presentation by N.O.D.'s former EPI Director Elizabeth Davis, the Access Board's Peg Blechman, and the Job Accommodation Network's Beth Loy.


Offline Resources

U.S. Fire Administration Fire Safety Directory
This online directory lists a wide range of programs, videotapes, booklets, manuals, pamphlets, brochures, program kits, and web sites on fire safety that are available from diverse sources throughout the country. Includes sections on Fire and the Elderly and Safety and the Disabled.

Fire Safety for People with Disabilities
The National Fire Protection Association of offers a print brochure on fire safety concerns for people with disabilities.

The National Center on Emergency Planning for People with Disabilities
This organization provides resources to assist local emergency management groups in planning for individuals who need specialized communications, transportation, and medical supports. It offers print and multi-media materials, bibliographical references, training materials and packages for remote or on-site professional training. It can also provide customized technical assistance to organizations that are evaluating and/or revising their emergency planning or procedures.


N.O.D. provides outside resources as a service, but cannot be held responsible for the information contained therein.