ADA Best Practices Tool Kit for State and Local Governments

F. Emergency Shelter Programs

When emergencies arise, communities often provide residents and visitors with safe refuge in temporary shelters. Shelters are sometimes operated by government entities themselves. More often, they are operated by a third party. Regardless of who operates a shelter, the ADA generally requires shelter operations to be conducted in a way that offers people with disabilities the same benefits – e.g., safety, comfort, food, medical care, the support of family and friends – provided to people without disabilities. Because sheltering programs are critical to ensuring the safety of people with disabilities in emergencies and disasters, ADA requirements for sheltering are discussed in greater detail in two stand-alone technical assistance documents that state and local governments can provide to shelter operators to assist them in planning to meet the needs of people with disabilities in the shelter environment. While these technical assistance documents do not address all ADA compliance issues that may arise in emergency shelters, they address a number of the most common access problems.

The first of these technical assistance documents – “The ADA and Emergency Shelters: Access for All in Emergencies and Disasters” is in Addendum 2 to this Chapter at www.ada.gov/pcatoolkit/chap7shelterprog.htm. It discusses the ADA’s nondiscrimination requirements for shelter programs. The second technical assistance document – “ADA Checklist for Emergency Shelters” is in Addendum 3 to this Chapter at www.ada.gov/pcatoolkit/chap7shelterchk.htm.The Checklist includes two assessment tools to help state and local governments and emergency shelter operators ensure that emergency shelters provide access to all: (1) a preliminary survey tool that will help in deciding if a facility has the accessibility characteristics that make it a good candidate for a potential emergency shelter, and (2) a more detailed checklist that will help identify the most common architectural barriers to access for people with disabilities found at emergency shelters.