Emergency Services and the Disabled Population

Emergency services encounter many challenges when responding to the needs of their community. This becomes even more challenging when the individual has a disability.

The attack on the World Trade Centers and Hurricane Katrina emphasized the need for emergency responders to be prepared to address the intricacies and complexities that face individuals with disabilities. This includes, but is not limited to, understanding the specific characteristics of the wide array of disabilities, agencies and entities that provide services to these individuals and how they operate, residential settings and their locations, adaptive equipment and assistive technology and the understanding of how it benefits the individual and how to allow it to assist in the response.

There have been several initiatives that have been incorporated over the course of the last few years that responders need to be aware of and involved in. This will be presented in a manner that allows for emergency personnel to easily and readily include in their everyday operations.

This presentation will provide you with information on all aspects regarding the field of disabilities and how to tend to specific needs. Topic areas include history, etiquette and interaction skills, definitions, understanding challenging behaviors, the disabled perspective, and current trends and topics, all tailored to emergency services.