September is National Emergency Preparedness Month and, as this September comes to an end, we wanted to share more resources that are available to the public. Earlier this month, we shared resources for people with disabilities that included webcasts from the Center for Personal Services and information from Disability.gov. As September winds to a close, here are a few more resources to add to your Ready Kit:

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has a list of resources available to the public. These resources include training, education, preparation and planning. They also have emergency preparedness resources that are specific for social media, which include a Facebook page, buttons and badges, widgets, and a fun way of teaching the importance of emergency preparedness through their graphic novel, “Preparedness 101: Zombie Pandemic.”
• The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) also has tools on how to prevent disaster losses, information on the full range of insurance coverage available to individuals and businesses, information on protecting our homes and our communities, and information on national preparedness.
• The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has resources on what to do in case of oil and hazardous substances pollution, increasing community involvement, and cleanups in our communities.
• The U.S. National Response Team (NRT) has exercises and drills, lessons learned and training and educational materials.

We conducted a search in our databases in relation to emergency preparedness and disabilities and found 167 articles. The following abstracts are only a few of these articles in our collection:

• Cultural competence in behavioral health disaster response: The challenge, the opportunity. In J.L. Framingham and M.L. Teasley (Eds.), Behavioral Health Response to Disasters. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, Pgs. 175-188. NARIC Accession Number: J63954. Project Number: H133B090014.
• Emergency communications and people with disabilities: 9-1-1 communication, public alerts, and social media: Summary report from the 2010-2011 emergency communication survey. NARIC Accession Number: O18307. Project Number: H133E060061.
• Emergency preparedness – once again. Hearing Loss Magazine, Volume 32(3), Pgs.24-25. NARIC Accession Number: J61118.

We also conducted a search of projects funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) and found 19 current and completed projects that deal with emergency preparedness for people with disabilities.  Here are a few of those projects:

• The Captioned Braille Radio Initiative: Providing Emergency Information for Individuals who are Deaf-Blind. Project Number: H133G090139.
• Experimental Research on Pedestrian and Evacuation Behaviors of Individuals with Disabilities; Theory Development Necessary to characterize Individual-Based Models. Project Number: H133G110242.
• Waking and Evacuation Effectiveness for Strobe Flash with the Severely Hearing Impaired. Project Number: H133G60054.

These are just a few resources, articles, and projects that are available on emergency preparedness. Please contact us if you need more resources or information on emergency preparedness for people with disabilities.