Illinois Department of Public Health Disability and Health Program Webinar: Including People with Disabilities in Emergency Preparedness Activities

April is Disaster Preparedness Month. The Illinois Department of Public Health, Disability and Health Program is sponsoring a Webinar designed to assist emergency preparedness professionals to include people with disabilities in emergency planning and exercises. Featured speaker Jessica Mitchell, Federal Emergency Management Agency Region V Disability Integration Specialist, will provide information on what content to include in exercises to test preparedness of services for people with disabilities and discuss how to make exercises and meetings accessible. She will also discuss roles people might play in exercises and provide examples of exercise scenarios.

Other speakers from local disability service agencies will provide information on who has disability in Illinois and the prevalence of various functional limitations, what local agencies are available to assist and what can they provide, and a panel of experts from agencies who serve people with disabilities will provide information on how to recruit people with a variety of different disabilities. They will discuss their own agency's areas of expertise and explain how they can assist local planners in including people with disabilities.

Presenters:
Carla Cox
Kiyoshki Yamaki
Jessica Mitchell

Panelists:
Rose Coniglio
Janinna Hendricks
Faye Manaster
Susan Doig
Donald Mitchell