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

Aug. 12, 2009

SCOPE AND PURPOSE:

NCD’s purpose is to promote policies and practices that guarantee equal opportunity for all individuals with disabilities, regardless of the nature or severity of the disability, and to empower individuals with disabilities to achieve economic self-sufficiency, independent living, and integration into all aspects of society. Under its congressional mandate, NCD is charged with the responsibility to gather information on the development and implementation of federal laws, policies, programs, and practices that affect people with disabilities. This report is a result of that mandate.

NCD has been interested and involved in emergency preparedness, disaster management, and recovery since 2003. NCD’s first evaluation of federal government work in this area was published in April 2005 in the 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.