Recent tragedies such as September 11 and Hurricane Katrina highlighted a gaping hole in the country’s ability to respond to emergency situations, an area that has been the subject of much policy and philanthropy work ever since.
However, there still remains a large gap in the country’s ability to provide for disabled citizens in an emergency situation – as of 2006, no state or large metropolitan area in the country had emergency plans to address the needs of people with disabilities, according to the Department of Homeland Security’s Nationwide Plan Review.
In addition, the department found that 85.7 percent of community-based service providers for senior and disabled citizens in New Orleans were not educated on the emergency management system prior to Hurricane Katrina.
The National Organization on Disability’s Emergency Preparedness Initiative (EPI) aims to address this situation, and will be aided by a recent donation of a $500,000 grant from the Walmart Foundation.
"Emergency preparedness for the disabled concerns all Americans, because anyone can join the disability community in an instant," said Hilary Styron, national director of EPI. "While we have come a long way in the past few years, the fact remains that individuals with disabilities and special needs are still the country’s most vulnerable population for emergency preparedness."
The grant will go toward expanding EPI’s network of advocacy organizations, increasing national awareness, increasing outreach activities for people with disabilities, revising and improving educational and training materials and reaching out to more states and counties.
EPI has already achieved significant progress in this mission, as its work following Hurricane Katrina led to the establishment of a National Disability Coordinator position at the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Approximately 54 million Americans have disabilities, representing one-fifth of the U.S. population, said the National Organization on Disability.