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EMERGENCY SELF-HELP GUIDE

Emergency Evacuation Preparedness: Taking Responsibility For Your Safety

A Guide For People with Disabilities and Other Activity Limitations

The Center for Disability Issues and the Health Professions (CDIHP) at Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, California, announces a new 36-page guide to help people with disabilities be better prepared for large or small-scale emergencies. The guide’s focus helps people with disabilities take responsibility for their own safety during emergencies and evacuations and work effectively with first responders.

In this post-9/11 world, people with disabilities must take responsibility for their own safety,” said Brenda Premo, CDHIP Director. “There is a universal human tendency to avoid thinking about possible emergencies. This avoidance has greater consequences for people with disabilities than for people without disabilities.”

“No matter what laws and public policies say, it's up to us as people with disabilities to individually and collectively do what we need to do to prepare for disasters. If we just rely on employers, building managers, or fire inspectors to make sure things are in place, it may or may not happen. It is not safe to assume that people with disabilities have been included in evacuation plans. People with disabilities must take an assertive proactive approach to ensure that our life safety needs are included in all emergency planning,” says June Isaacson Kailes, the Guide’s author and CDIHP’s Associate Director. Kailes is known internationally for her disability-related work in access, health and wellness, aging and disaster preparedness.

Who Should Read This Guide?

This guide focuses on people with disabilities and activity limitations successfully evacuating buildings. Its goal is to help you strengthen your evacuation preparedness.

Will you need assistance in an emergency evacuation?
Do you experience any of the following conditions that could interfere with your ability to quickly evacuate a building?
Yes	No	Limitations that interfere with walking or using stairs (joint pain, mobility device user - wheelchair, canes, crutches, walker).
Yes	No	Reduced stamina, fatigue or tire easily (due to a variety of temporary or permanent conditions not limited to those on this list).
Yes	No	Respiratory (cardiac [heart] conditions, asthma, emphysema, or other symptoms triggered by stress, exertion, or exposure to small amounts of dust or smoke etc.).
Yes	No	Emotional, cognitive, thinking, or learning difficulties (may become confused when dealing with unfamiliar and unusual activity during an emergency, lose sense of direction, or may need emergency directions explained in simple steps or basic concepts).
Yes	No	Vision loss (may require assistance in learning the emergency evacuation routes or assistance in moving down stairs).
Yes	No	Hearing loss (may require modification to the standard way emergency announcements, notifications and instructions are provided).
Yes	No	Temporary limitations resulting from, but not limited to: Surgery Accidents and injuries (sprains, broken bones), Pregnancy.
Yes	No	Do you rely on technology or medication, which may not work in an emergency (hearing aids, wheelchair, gas mask, elevator, lighting, sounds)?
Yes	No	Other:

If you answered yes to any of these questions you should read this guide available at no cost from http://www.cdihp.org/products.html , or to order a hard copy, send a check payable to: CDIHP for $24.00 (includes shipping, handling and applicable tax) to CDIHP, 309 E. 2^nd Street, Pomona, CA 91766‑1854. Contact CDIHP for pricing on bulk or international orders at Phone: (909) 469‑5380, TTY (909) 469-5520, Fax: (909) 469‑5407, Email: evac@westernu.edu.