<< Back to Current Issue

The work of the Council is carried out in eight Subcommittees, each chaired by the appropriate department or agency sitting on the Council. The eight Subcommittees each developed guiding principles and set out deliverables to achieve. Their primary objectives are as follows:

Disability Preparedness Resource Center Web Site
The Interagency Coordinating Council recognizes that a significant amount of technical assistance material and information have accumulated on this subject over the years. In order to locate these valuable resources, people must navigate through an increasingly complex maze of information and resources. Among the critical first steps of the Council is the consolidation of such information and resources for ease of access. On July 21, 2005, the Council launched the “Disability Resource Center,” a web-based portal for information covering topics on emergency preparedness and response for individuals with disabilities, emergency planners, first responders and service providers. Go to www.dhs.gov/disabilitypreparedness to learn more about disability preparedness.

Enforcement of Federal Communications Commission’s Access to Emergency Information Rules
In the past year, the Commission’s Enforcement Bureau issued six Notices of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture against video programming distributors for apparent violations of Section 79.2 of the Commission rules for failing in a timely manner to make emergency information accessible to persons with hearing disabilities via captioning or other visual format during wildfires in California, and tornadoes in Maryland and the Washington, DC metropolitan area.

Enforcement of the Americans with Disabilities Act
The Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division issued a new technical assistance document that provides guidance to local officials in making emergency preparedness plans consistent with the requirements of Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The technical assistance document is an outgrowth of settlement agreements the Department of Justice has negotiated with local governments in all areas of the country—large to small, urban and rural. These agreements contain more than a dozen provisions designed to ensure that local government emergency management programs address the needs of persons with disabilities.

Workplace Emergency Preparedness Guidelines
The Council developed and disseminated a tool for Federal emergency planners, managers and employees that frames the effective practices and lessons learned by agencies. This template of guidelines will assist Federal agencies in the development, implementation and maintenance of emergency plans that are fully inclusive of employees with disabilities.

Emergency Preparedness Grant
The Department of Homeland Security awarded a $1.5 million grant to a consortium of organizations that serve people who are deaf, late-deafened hard-of-hearing, and deaf-blind. The consortium is led by Maryland-based Telecommunications for the Deaf, Inc. (TDI), and includes organizations in Virginia, Massachusetts, California and South Dakota. Together these organizations will develop model emergency preparedness community education programs for their consumers throughout the United States.

Conference on Emergency Preparedness for People with Disabilities
The National Capital Region, including homeland security advisors to the governors of Virginia and Maryland, as well as the mayor of the District of Columbia and leaders from the disability community worked together to host an extremely successful three-day conference. The conference received significant support from DHS and was held in partnership with the National Organization on Disability. It brought together over 400 high-level authorities from emergency management and disability communities, government agencies, private business, service, advocacy and care networks. This conference afforded these groups a much needed opportunity for dialog and partnership on disability issues in emergency planning.

National Citizen Corps Subcommittee on Individuals with Disabilities in Emergency Preparedness
The Council, in partnership with the National Citizen Corps, brought together representatives from national disability consumer and advocacy organizations to form a Citizen Corps Subcommittee. These organizations represent a wide crosssection of the disability community. The Subcommittee assists in the exchange of information between the disability community and the Council, and promotes the participation of this community in emergency preparedness training, exercises and volunteer programs.

Priority Restoration Status for Telecommunications Relay Service Providers (TRS)
The FCC qualified TRS providers for enrollment in the National Communications System National Security/Emergency Preparedness Telecommunications Service Priority system. After a disaster, this system enables priority restoration of telecommunication service for individuals with hearing and speech disabilities.

DHS Secretary Reaches Out to State Governors
In January 2005, Secretary of Homeland Security wrote a letter to all State and Territorial Governors emphasizing their emergency preparedness responsibilities to individuals with disabilities; he listed several steps that emergency preparedness planners should undertake in order to ensure that their plans are as comprehensive as possible with regards to the needs of their constituents with disabilities. The Secretary emphasized that people with disabilities have a great deal of input to offer and can benefit emergency planners. He encouraged them to include members of this community in the planning process, and also asked that they share best practices with DHS.

Future of the Interagency Coordinating Council
A lot of ground has been covered during the first year of the Council’s existence, but there is a lot more to do. September 11, 2001, the California wildfires, hurricanes in Florida and the power outages on the East Coast all serve as vivid reminders; of our vulnerability as a nation, and the need for every person with or without disability to prepare for various types of disasters. The commitment and enthusiasm of members of the Interagency Coordinating Council and its partners at the State, local and tribal levels as well as stakeholder organizations suggest that there will continue to be dramatic improvement in emergency preparedness for people with disabilities in the years to come.

Back to Top

Council Participants >>