The Center for Disability Issues and the Health Professions (CDIHP) at Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, California, has published a new 36 page guide to help people with disabilities be better prepared for large or small-scale emergencies. This guide helps people take responsibility for their own safety during emergencies and evacuations and work effectively with first responders. Learn about this important resource, how to obtain it at no cost, and how your organization can use the Guide.

In this post-9/11 world, people with disabilities must take responsibility for their own safety. There is a universal human tendency to avoid thinking about possible emergencies. This avoidance has greater consequences for people with disabilities than for people without disabilities.

“No matter what laws and public policies say, it's up to us as people with disabilities to individually and collectively do what we need to do to prepare for disasters. If we just rely on employers, building managers, or fire inspectors to make sure things are in place, it may or may not happen. It is not safe to assume that people with disabilities have been included in evacuation plans. People with disabilities must take an assertive proactive approach to ensure that our life safety needs are included in all emergency planning,” says June Isaacson Kailes, the Guide’s author and CDIHP’s Associate Director. Kailes is known internationally for her disability-related work in access, health and wellness, aging and disaster preparedness.