FEMA Promising Practice: Communication Outreach and Toolkits

Date/Time: January 14, 2016 at 2:30 pm ET

Location: Weninar

Description: These 90 minute webinars are delivered by the Pacific ADA Center using the Blackboard Collaborate webinar platform. All sessions will be captioned, recorded and archived.

This program is delivered via both webinar platform and via telephone (additional charges may apply). Real-time captioning is available via the webinar platform.

All webinars offered have real-time closed captioning for persons who are hearing impaired. The webinars are accessible to people with vision disabilities by using screen readers. The webinar system is also accessible to people with mobility/dexterity impairments who use keyboard commands instead of mouse clicks.

This webinar will have two presentations that address responding to communications and outreach needs of the whole community. In the first presentation, we will hear from members of the Community Outreach and Effective Communications Subcommittee of the Texas Disability Task Force about how they work to ensure access through outreach to the community. One of the products created and distributed by the Texas Disability Task Force is the Effective Communications Toolkit. The Effective Communication toolkit applies to emergency management and public information professionals who work for, or with, local jurisdictions to communicate warnings, notifications, and other messages to news media and to the public. It also contains face-to-face operational communication tools for shelter managers and first responders.

In the second presentation, we will hear from the Public Safety Committee of the Seattle Commission for People with disAbilities and their Emergency Shelter Communications Toolkit, a Field Manual designed for use primarily by any facility planning for, or pressed into service as, an emergency shelter. Written by disability subject matter experts, it provides information, tools, and resources, to address communication barriers which can be present in an emergency shelter situation. The manual also has value for any emergency management professional in communication with people with disabilities.

Learning objective:

• Learn elements that ensure that emergency communications services and equipment address the functional and access needs of people with disabilities as part of a “whole community” approach.

• Learn about the development, goals, and contents of the Emergency Shelter Communications Toolkit, and its uses, in the field and in planning, outreach, and other emergency management activities.

To register please click here