Emergency management and disability-inclusive disaster risk reduction

Discover related resources in the Disability Inclusion and Disasters Collection.

People with disability face disproportionate disaster risk and consequences. Three key areas that the emergency management sector can focus on are inclusive plans, inclusive information and inclusive practices.

Scoping Study: Emergency Management Capabilities for DIDRR | University of Sydney

In 2023 The University of Sydney published a scoping study on emergency management capabilities for disability-inclusive disaster risk reduction. There were three parts to the study:

Part 1: Understand what is known about emergency sector capabilities for DIDRR.
Part 2: Examine how disability is represented in Australian emergency management plans and guidance documents.
Part 3: Identify and map good practice resources for DIDRR implementation in Australia.

The results are presented in the main scoping study report, an evidence gap map, and a resource gap map. These are accompanied by three summaries: overview; purpose, method and findings; and recommendations.

View all resources for Scoping Study: Emergency Management Capabilities for DIDRR

Scoping Study recommendations

Inclusive plans

States/territories and local governments should profile people with disability in emergency management plans to ensure planning for their support needs. These plans should:
- provide details about aware, capable, and prepared community services and resources that can help during emergencies.
- reference other disability guidance documents so that those in charge of implementing emergency plans know where to find this information.

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) will continue to work with the Australian Government Department of Social Services (DSS) to create a consistent framework for measuring progress on disability inclusive disaster risk reduction.
- They should also invest in research to develop accurate and reliable tools for measuring disability inclusion in emergency plans.
- Part 2 of the scoping study (see Procedure on page 50) report provides guidance on how to start and shares findings on disability inclusion in emergency plans that can help DSS with their Data Improvement Plan to track progress in this area.
Commonwealth and states/territories should make state-level emergency guidance documents more practical by adding specific actions and measurable results for disability inclusion in two key areas:
- tailored preparedness support in partnership people and their support services, and
- collaboration between emergency, community, and disability services.
It’s important to involve disability representatives in creating strategies to support people actively during emergencies.
Require monitoring and evaluation to measure progress towards DIDRR.
Share planning and guidance documents with local emergency management groups and keep them updated on how the strategies are helping people and their support services.

Inclusive information

Commonwealth, states/territories, and local governments should focus on making emergency information and communications accessible to everyone. Here’s how:

1. Use research-informed methods to review and improve communication processes and tools and do this in partnership with people with disability. Specific consideration should be given to the accessibility, readability, understandability, and actionability of risk information and communications.

2. Evaluate how inclusive emergency information helps people with disability to prepare for emergencies and stay safe.

3. Obtain feedback from people with disability to assess how improvements to risk information and communications support their access to tailored emergency preparedness and response plans.

4. Involve disability representatives in reviewing and improving national-level emergency frameworks, strategies, and systems to ensure they are accessible to all.

5. Involve disability representatives in reviewing and improving state/territory emergency management plans and guidance documents.

Commonwealth, states/territories, and local governments should work with disability representatives to improve emergency information and services by:

1. Making sure emergency risk information and communications (like disaster alerts and preparedness materials) are easy to use by a wide range of people, including those who need information in accessible formats.

2. Enhancing early warning systems and messages so that people with disability can understand and act upon them.

3. Improving education policies and procedures for people with disability, including offering inclusive choices and opportunities to learn about their disaster risks, helping them to plan with their support networks, and ensuring that evacuation centres and relief hubs are universally accessible.

States/territories should improve the abilities of government and emergency services. This means including disability awareness and actions for disaster risk reduction in the training of emergency personnel, especially those involved in risk assessment, communication, planning, community engagement, and recovery efforts.

• The Person-Centred Emergency Preparedness (P-CEP) certificate course at the University of Sydney Centre for Continuing Education is a world first interdisciplinary program that helps emergency personnel learn and collaborate with people with disability and their support services to enhance their approach to DIDRR. This program has been evaluated with significant outcomes demonstrating effectiveness.

• Emergency Sector Disability Awareness (ESDA) provides a three-part introductory learning module on disability awareness for the emergency sector.

Inclusive practices

Commonwealth, states/territories, and local government should encourage the use of available tools and resources to achieve DIDRR in practice. Application of these tools and resources should focus on:
- tailoring preparedness support for individuals and their service providers, and
- working together across different sectors to overcome barriers that increase the risk for people with disability in emergencies.
Make sure that organisations and individuals who are resourced (e.g., disaster resilience/ready funding) to undertake DIDRR responsibilities:
- are aware, capable, and prepared themselves
- are trained in preparedness support, and
- understand Australia’s emergency management arrangements.
Promote collaboration between different groups involved in DIDRR by clarifying their roles and responsibilities.
The resource-gap map highlights 160 high-quality and readily available resources that can help with preparedness support and collaboration, allowing community and disability stakeholders to work alongside government and emergency services for better DIDRR.
- The Commonwealth and states/territories should use the resource-gap map to figure out where to focus efforts for strategic development of resources, their implementation and evaluation.
- NEMA should team up with the Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience (AIDR) to follow the recommendations in Part 3 of the scoping study report (see pages 68 – 69) to ensure ongoing development of high-quality resources for disaster risk reduction that are accessible to multiple stakeholders, including people with disability.

Recovery Exercising Toolkit: Coordinating recovery support for people with disability

The Recovery Exercising Toolkit is a companion to the Managing Exercises Handbook and helps emergency managers plan exercises. To enable the exercises to be inclusive of people with disability, the elective module, Coordinating Recovery Support for People with Disability is available.

The Coordinating Support for People with Disability elective module is designed to give participants a common understanding of the impacts of disasters for people with disability. It emphasises both the strengths and support needs of people with disability and their capability to contribute to emergency management and recovery planning. This stand-alone module can also be used outside of an exercise activity and incorporated into workshops or training sessions and as a ‘just in time’ training resource to support Recovery Committees that are established after a disaster.

View the Recovery Exercising Toolkit Download module overview (PDF 628KB) Download module slidedeck (PPT 7.6MB) View video: Disability inclusive recovery planning and arrangements

International emergency management and disability-inclusive disaster risk reduction practices

FEMA Office of Disability Integration and Coordination

The US Federal Emergency Management Agency has an Office of Disability Integration and Coordination to help deliver the agency’s shared mission of helping people before, during and after disasters in ways that maximize the inclusion of, and accessibility for, people with disabilities.

It provides federal, state, local, tribal and territorial governments, the public sector and non-profit organizations with the tools, training, resources and strategies necessary to help ensure that people with disabilities can participate in, and benefit from, programs and services during all phases of emergency management. It manages a deployable Disability Integration Cadre, comprised of Disability Integration Advisors and Disability Integration Specialists.

View FEMA Office of Disability Integration and Coordination

European Disability Forum

In 2021 the European Forum for Disaster Risk Reduction (EFDRR), the European Disability Forum (EDF) released a review of disability-inclusive disaster risk reduction (DiDRR) policy and practice across countries of the Europe and Central Asia region.

The aim of the review was to provide a baseline of information for this region on the current state of disability inclusion in DRR-related policies and practices and to support consistency of reporting on disability inclusion in DRR across the rest of the regions of the world.

Review of Disability-inclusive Disaster Risk Reduction Policy and Practice