Public health emergencies, like the COVID-19 pandemic, have posed significant challenges for people with disabilities. Recognizing these barriers, NACCHO’s Health and Disability program received funding to address the needs of people with disabilities in local preparedness planning, mitigation, and recovery efforts. This project was funded by the Disability and Health Branch, Division of Human Development and Disability, National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from January 2021 to December 2023. The project embedded disability specialists, serving as subject matter experts, in local health departments nationwide to assess, plan, implement and evaluate their agencies emergency preparedness programs to include people with disabilities in local planning and response efforts. Below are reflections on the important outcomes and successes of this project over the past three years.

Collaborative Success and A Wide Impact

This project’s success was made possible by the dedication and collaboration of the 21 local health department awardees. They played a crucial role in ensuring that the needs of people with disabilities remained a priority in local preparedness planning and response efforts. Through their efforts, the project activities implemented had the potential reach of over 2.8 million people with disabilities across all jurisdictions served by the local health departments.

Local Health Department Awardees:

• Public Health - Seattle & King County, WA
• Kittitas County Public Health Department, WA
• Marion County Health and Human Services, OR
• Long Beach Health and Human Services, CA
• Stanislaus County Health Services Agency, CA
• Jefferson County Public Health, CO
• Utah County Health Department, UT
• Pima County Health Department, AZ
• Williamson County and Cities Health District, TX
• Cameron County Public Health, TX
• City of Laredo Health Department, TX
• Harris County Public Health, TX
• Kent County Health Department, MI
• Trumbull County Combined Health District, OH
• Franklin County Public Health, OH
• Philadelphia Department of Public Health, PA
• Niagara County Department of Health, NY
• Three Rivers Health District, VA
• Alexandria Health Department, VA
• City of New Orleans - Health Department, LA
• Center for Living Independently in the CNMI (Commonwealth Northern Mariana Islands)

Bridging the Gaps

A cornerstone of the project was the comprehensive health agency capacity and partnership and community engagement assessments. The health agency assessment looked at understanding local health department’s capacity to address the needs of people with disabilities in their preparedness planning, mitigation, and recovery efforts and the partnership assessment sought to understand how local health agencies collaborated with community partners, particularly disability organizations for the same purpose. These assessments identified 74 service gaps and support for people with disabilities during emergencies. Through strategic planning, these gaps were addressed by implementing more staff training, improving accessible emergency preparedness communication, and establishing partnerships with disability organizations and policy changes. These activities included in the local health department’s improvement plans ensured that people with disabilities are included in the emergency planning process and emergency preparedness exercises and drills.

Strengthening Emergency Plans

During the project timeline, 47 total emergency plans were updated to include people with disabilities as a priority population. These updates ensured that emergency response strategies are inclusive of people with disabilities through all stages of emergency preparedness.

New Practices, Policies, Services, Or Programs Implemented

The awardees implemented innovative practices, policies, services, and programs that addressed the needs of people with disabilities:

• Updated Emergency Operation Plans: Emergency operation plans have been updated to include people with disabilities, incorporating input from the disability community to ensure their needs are met.
• Established Disability Councils and Advisory Groups: Disability councils and advisory groups have been established, along with coalitions consisting of partners and stakeholders from the disability and access functional needs community.
• Developed Accessible Communication Standard of Practice (SOP): An accessible communication standard of practice was developed to ensure effective communication methods for disaster alerts and during emergencies.
• Created Disability Etiquette Trainings: New disability etiquette training courses were created to better understand and support people with disabilities.
• Hosted Accessible Clinics and Points of Distribution (PODs): Clinics and points of distribution were made more accessible to ensure that people with disabilities can receive essential services without barriers.
• Conducted Community Engagement and Demographic Surveys: Community engagement and demographic surveys were conducted to better understand the needs and concerns of people with disabilities, informing more effective planning and response efforts.

Looking Ahead

At this project’s end, the outcomes and successes achieved highlighted the importance of inclusive preparedness planning. By addressing the needs of people with disabilities, local health departments can enhance their safety, strengthen their resilience and well-being during emergencies. Moving forward, it is crucial to continue building on these successes and ensuring that the lessons learned from this project inform future preparedness, mitigation, and recovery efforts.