FEMA: Office of Disability Integration and Coordination

Mission

The Office of Disability Integration and Coordination leads FEMA's commitment to achieving whole community emergency management, inclusive of individuals with disabilities and others with access and functional needs, by providing guidance, tools, methods and strategies to establish equal physical, program and effective communication access.

Role

In 2010, FEMA established the Office of Disability Integration and Coordination to lead FEMA’s commitment to achieve whole community emergency management, inclusive of individuals with disabilities.

Each of the 10 FEMA regions is staffed with a Regional Disability Integration Specialist who provide guidance, training, and tools for facilitating disability-inclusive emergency preparedness, response, recovery and mitigation. Regional Disability Integration Specialists work closely with the states to ensure that their disaster planning is inclusive of people with disabilities and others with access and functional needs.  Simultaneously, they work with local nonprofit disability groups to reach the disability community encouraging them to participate in federal, state, local, and community emergency planning meetings.

We have built a team of 70 disability integration experts who go to disaster areas throughout the nation to provide guidance and advice throughout disaster response and recovery. Nearly a third of our experts are interpreters -- 25 qualified sign language interpreters and five certified deaf interpreters.

We provide assistive devices in our disaster recovery centers to fully accommodate disaster survivors with disabilities as they apply for disaster assistance.

At the state, local, and regional levels, we have supported the development of advisory groups led by representatives from disability services and advocacy organizations alongside emergency managers. These groups help us to meet the disability rights mantra “nothing about us without us” by facilitating stakeholder engagement, communicating emergency management decisions and establishing a sense of community ownership.