SHARE: Emergency Management Expert Group

NAD October 26, 2016 in ASL 19 Subscribers Subscribe

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[Video description can be found below. If you use a screen reader and need to access the caption file transcript, go to "More..." and click on "Transcript"]

Emergency Management Expert Group Chair Neil McDevitt explains their position statement available at: Link .

Video description and transcript: Neil McDevitt is standing in front a blue curtain. A small white NAD logo appears on bottom right corner.

NEIL: Hi. My name is Neil McDevitt. Iâ€™m the chair of the NAD Emergency Management expert group; we were asked to assess the challenges that deaf and hard of hearing people frequently face in emergency management, preparedness, and response.

Many challenges include:
- no access to emergency warnings;
- press briefings by mayors, governors, and other officials are not interpreted or captioned;
- access to services in recovery centers after disasters is poor; and
- training programs are not accessible.

This expert group had people who were both experts in deaf experiences and emergency management. The NAD asked us to develop a position statement on emergency management. The goal of the statement was to give our state chapters and associations as well as other member organizations key information they can use in advocating for greater access for the challenges noted.

At the same time, we wanted to make sure when the position statement is shared with emergency managers, they could then understand the document and use it to create access.

We focused on several topics in the position statement.

1) We noticed many emergency management organizations do not have dedicated funds set aside for disability access needs. We recommend that funds be set aside specifically for that purpose.

2) Emergency management in each location must include deaf and hard of hearing people in their planning processes and meetings. Representation should happen both internally and externally. The deaf and hard of hearing community should be included in any discussion about policies and procedures.

3) Emergency management officials must set up a process to get interpreters for press conferences. Anytime a governor, mayor, or an official provides information to the community, an interpreter must be present.

4) Make sure the interpreter can be seen on screen! We have often seen interpreters out of frame because the camera focuses only on the person speaking.

5) Emergency management officials should make sure broadcasters also have captioning available for broadcasts.

6) Information available online should be accessible via ASL and captions.

7) Any training offered in this area should have interpreters or captions available.

8) Any disaster recovery center that helps people with all kinds of services including insurance and other recovery should be accessible to deaf and hard of hearing people.

9) In many disasters, emergency management officials will use N-1-1 services to share information. Itâ€™s not 9-1-1, but rather like 2-1-1 or 3-1-1. However, most do not have texting capabilities. We need to encourage them to utilize that feature.

Video fades to a soft white background with several different font types showing "NAD" very quickly. Copyright video ends with the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) logo centered. Blue text below the logo appears, "A production of the National Association of the Deaf (copyright) 2016 All Rights Reserved".