Return to: Main Document Contents

Appendix B: Excerpts from Individuals With Disabilities in Emergency Preparedness, Executive Order 13347: Annual Report, July 2005.

Excerpts below are from the Executive Summary, the Research Subcommittee chapter, and Recommendation 7 of the Individuals With Disabilities in Emergency Preparedness, Executive Order 13347: Annual Report, July 2005, published by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, on behalf of the Interagency Coordinating Council on Emergency Preparedness and Individuals With Disabilities (ICC).

The full report is available at: http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/CRCL_IWDEP_AnnualReport_2005.pdf
(last accessed March 28, 2008).

[Below is from Page 3]

I. Executive Summary

Background

The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks significantly increased awareness of the need to be prepared for all kinds of disasters and emergencies. As a nation, we are much more conscious of our vulnerabilities, not only to natural disasters such as tornadoes, fires, floods and hurricanes but also to acts of terrorism. We are more keenly aware of the compounded vulnerabilities and challenges the approximately 54 million Americans with disabilities face in time of disasters and emergencies. Yet disaster and emergency mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery planning efforts often overlook people with disabilities. Ensuring that people with disabilities become and remain an integral part of the nation's disaster and emergency mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery efforts requires a concerted approach to address a myriad of complex issues.

Implementation of the Executive Order

Recognizing that individuals with disabilities should feel as safe and secure in their communities and work environments as individuals without disabilities, President George W. Bush issued Executive Order 13347, Individuals with Disabilities in Emergency Preparedness. This Executive Order, a copy of which is provided as Appendix 1, sets forth the role of the Federal Government in effectively tackling these issues in a coordinated fashion. To ensure this, the President created the Interagency Coordinating Council on Emergency Preparedness and Individuals with Disabilities, directing multiple Federal executive departments and agencies to work together to ensure that emergency preparedness plans are as comprehensive as possible with regard to the issues presented by individuals with disabilities.

The Council has concentrated its work in eight major areas:

Emergency Communications;
Emergency Preparedness in the Workplace;
Emergency Transportation;
Health;
Private Sector Coordination;
Research;
State, Local and Tribal Government Coordination; and
Technical Assistance and Outreach.

[Below is from Pages 26-28)

F. Research Subcommittee

Summary of Objectives

There are many questions about how best to secure the safety and security of people with disabilities in emergency situations. The broad array of disabilities, the breadth of possible emergency scenarios and the interactive nature of certain disabilities with social environments (and disruption of those environments) means that research efforts may be required to address the many factors with the potential to impact individuals with disabilities in the context of a life-threatening disaster.

Decisive answers to these complex issues remain uncertain. Sufficient empirically-based research focusing on disability is not available to guide the many efforts underway to prepare for potential terrorist attacks, natural disasters and other emergencies. For example, the NCD reports that while there is a wealth of anecdotal accounts, meeting minutes and unpublished reports in the popular press, there is scarce research on the experiences of people with disabilities in disaster activities.^11a

The mission of the Research Subcommittee is to assess, coordinate and promote Federal research related to emergency preparedness for individuals with disabilities. Primary objectives of the Research Subcommittee include: assessing the state-of-the-art on emergency preparedness and disability, identifying research gaps; coordinating Federal emergency preparedness research activities; and soliciting public input on an as needed basis. This includes, but is not limited to, gathering input from the disability community and other public and private stakeholders, developing, maintaining and disseminating to the public a compendium of Federal emergency preparedness research, and creating a research agenda on emergency preparedness and individuals with disabilities.

Saving Lives: Including People with Disabilities in Emergency Planning. National Council on Disability Web site. Available http://www.ncd.gov/newsroom/publications/2005/saving_lives.htm (May, 2005).

Scope of Research Subcommittee

The Subcommittee is identifying Federal department and agency representatives vested with responsibilities associated with research on emergency preparedness and disabilities. It is working with these representatives to identify Federally-funded projects on emergency preparedness and disabilities. To date, participating Federal agencies and departments include:

Department of Education;
Department of Labor;
U.S. Access Board;
Department of Justice; Department of Transportation;
Department of Agriculture;
Department of Homeland Security;
Department of Veterans Affairs;
Department of Interior;
Office of Personnel Management; and
Department of Health and Human Services (including the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the Office on Disability, the Administration on Aging, the Centers for Disease Control, and the National Institute of Mental Health);
Department of Commerce (including National Institute of Standards and Technology);
The National Science Foundation; and
The National Council on Disability.

The Research Subcommittee continues to broaden this partnership across the Federal Government in order to establish a comprehensive assessment of activities while still avoiding duplication of efforts.

Administration

The Research Subcommittee is chaired jointly by representatives from the NIDRR in the Department of Education (ED), and the ODEP in the DOL. The Research Subcommittee operates as a Task Force under the Interagency Committee on Disability Research (ICDR), Interagency Subcommittee on the New Freedom Initiative (ISNFI). The Chair of the ICDR is Mr. Steven James Tingus, who also is the Director of NIDRR, located within ED's Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS). The Assistant Secretary for OSERS, Mr. John H. Hager, represents ED on the Interagency Coordinating Council.

Projects Initiated

The Research Subcommittee is currently spearheading the following initiatives:

Assessing the State-of-the-Art in Research on Emergency Preparedness and Disability
The Subcommittee has launched a number of activities to assess the state-of-the-art in research on emergency preparedness and disability. An initial scan of several engineering, education, psychology, medicine and other databases yielded numerous "how to" guides, checklists, reviews of legislation, conference proceedings and catalogs of technologies useful for people with disabilities in emergency situations, but few research-specific articles.

Similarly, preliminary documentation from the Subcommittee's federal partners suggests that little federal support has been available for research specific to emergency preparedness and disability. Emergency preparedness has, for the most part, focused on the general population; attention to disability issues is recent. Below are some examples of federal and Federally-funded research projects and conferences related to emergency preparedness for people with disabilities. Funding sources and grantee information are provided in footnotes.

Research Projects:

Disaster Planning, Mobility Impairment, and Best Practices:
- Determining whether areasthat have experienced natural disasters include people with mobility impairments in their disaster plans and emergency response systems, identifying morbidity and mortality of persons with mobility impairments in disasters and identifying emerging or best practice models for individual counties.¹²
Emergency Evacuation:
- Developing comprehensive, easy-to-use safe evacuation education materials and training tools that include people with disabilities.¹³
- Developing standards to improve the ability of persons with disabilities to get out of buildings during mass evacuations triggered by health or safety emergencyevents.¹⁴
Self-Advocacy and Survival Skills:
- Developing a Web-based software program that assists people who are deaf or hard of hearing in learning self-advocacy and survival skills for life threateningsituations.¹⁵
Emergency Managers:
- Studying emergency management officials at the State and local level in the United States to determine how they have incorporated the emergency needs of people with disabilities in their emergency plans.¹⁶

Funding Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention through the Association of Teachers of Preventative Medicine; Grantee: Research and Training Center on Independent Living, University of Kansas; Project Name: Nobody Left Behind: Disaster Preparedness for Persons with Mobility Impairments.
Funding Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research; Grantee: West Virginia University; Project Name: Project Safe EV-AC.
Funding Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research; Grantee: Utah State University Center for Persons with Disabilities; Project Name: Bottom-Up Modeling of Mass Pedestrian Flows: Implications for the Effective Egress of Individuals with Disabilities.
Funding Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research; Grantee: Vcom3D, Inc; Project Name: Emergency Preparedness Training Software with Universal Access.
Funding Source: U.S. Department of Homeland Security; Grantee: National Organization on Disability; Project Name: Emergency Preparedness Survey.

Directions for the Federal Government:
- Providing an overview of steps the Federal Government should take to build a solid and resilient infrastructure that will enable the government to include the diverse populations of people with disabilities in emergency preparedness, disaster relief and homeland security programs. This infrastructure would incorporate access to technology, physical plants, programs and communications. It also would include procurement and emergency programs and services.¹⁷
Conferences:
- A National Consensus Conference was held in 2003 focusing on Pediatric Preparedness for Disasters and Terrorism. This conference dealt with issues relevant to children with disabilities, including: mental health needs and children with special health care needs. A follow-up consensus conference on Emergency Preparedness was held in September 2005, with a dual focus: pediatrics (including children with disabilities) and people with disabilities across the lifespan.¹⁸
- A conference was held in 2004 on Emergency Evacuation of People with Physical Disabilities from Buildings.¹⁹

Surveying and Compiling Federal Research Activities
To ensure the continued and thorough investigation of Federal and Federally-funded research, the Research Subcommittee collaborated with DHS and the Interagency Coordinating Council's State, Local and Tribal Government Subcommittee to develop a survey focusing on emergency preparedness and disability.²⁰ The purpose of the survey is to develop a comprehensive compilation of programs, activities and initiatives of Federal departments and agencies that support safety and security for individuals with disabilities in emergency situations. This survey requests information related to funding (grants and contracts), training and outreach, and research. The Research Subcommittee developed the research-related questions. This survey will be sent first to Federal agencies and later to nonprofit entities and State, local and tribalgovernments.

Soliciting Public Input

The Research Subcommittee is committed to seeking input on research needs from public and private stakeholders (e.g., the disability community, first responders, and industry representatives) and has initiated a number of projects to further this goal. First, the Research Subcommittee has established a public input link on the ICDR Web site, which invites comment on research needs in the area of emergency preparedness and disability. Second, the Research Subcommittee is working with the Interagency Coordinating Council's Private Sector Coordination Group to identify methods of securing public input. Third, the Research Subcommittee has established a collaborative effort with Columbia University's National Center on Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University in New York. At the September 2005 Consensus Conference on Emergency Preparedness, the Research Subcommittee and the ICC provided information on the activities of the ICC and at the same time will seek input from conference attendees to assess more fully the range of research questions and needs.

Funding Source: National Council on Disability; Grantee: June Isaacson Kailes; Project Name: Saving Lives: Including People with Disabilities In Emergency Planning.
Funding Source: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; Grantee: Columbia University; Project Name: Emergency Preparedness for Special Populations. Proceedings from this conference indicate that current adult models and guidelines cannot be applied to disaster preparedness for children. Furthermore, a review of the literature in the area of pediatric preparedness yielded very little data. Conference proceedings indicate that this lack of data has resulted in policy statements that are based on a "best advice" approach rather than researchfindings.
This was an activity of the Federal Interagency Committee on Disability Research (ICDR). Formal recommendations from this conference are forthcoming, but cover areas such as: (a) building design, codes, and construction; (b) first responders; (c) the involvement of people with disabilities in emergency preparedness activities; (d) evacuation equipment and mobility devices; and (e) human factors and egress modeling (evacuation models that take into account human behavior).
The Interagency Committee on Disability Research Web site. Available: http://www.icdr.us (April, 2005).

Future Goals

Complete a comprehensive literature review and develop a discussion of research gaps.
Create, maintain and update a list of federal agency representatives who have responsibility for emergency preparedness research affecting people with disabilities.
Create, maintain and update a listing of federal research projects related to emergency preparedness and disability.
Solicit input from the disability community and other public and private stakeholders regarding research gaps in the area of emergency preparedness and disability.
Identify research needs in the area of emergency preparedness and disability.

Conclusion

There is a plethora of guides, checklists, tip sheets and plans related to emergency preparedness and disability, but a noticeable lack of empirical research to back up those guides, plans and practices. The nation's emergency preparedness efforts will be more effective in protecting the lives of approximately 54 million Americans with disabilities if they are based on solid research. It is critical to transition from suggestions and ideas to empirically-based research that provides evidence for what works. By doing this, people with disabilities, first responders, the health care industry and other stakeholders will receive the information they need to answer criticalquestions.

[Below is from Pages 38-39.]

V. Recommendations

Executive Order 13347 directs the Interagency Coordinating Council to submit to the President recommendations for advancing the policy set forth in the Executive Order. It requires that the Council identify future actions that the executive departments and agencies can undertake to ensure that the Federal Government appropriately supports safety and security for individuals with disabilities in situations involving disasters, including earthquakes, tornados, fires, flood, hurricanes and acts of terrorism.

Recommendation 7: Coordinate evidence-based Federal research into the effectiveness of audio, visual and/or tactile protocols and technologies related to emergency preparedness, alerting, warning and response for individuals with disabilities. In order to ensure that all persons are alerted to and warned about disasters or emergencies, accessible technologies are indispensable. The ICC is uniquely positioned to accelerate research that guides the development and integration of appropriate technologies into the Nation's emergency warning systems and practices. These technologies identified from research will guide contract procurement and technical assistance, and translate findings into guidelines. Findings will also result in information on promising new practices for alerting and warning individuals with disabilities.

The Department of Education's mission is to promote student achievement and
preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational
excellence and ensuring equal access.
www.ed.gov