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Nobody Left Behind: 
Emergency Preparedness for Persons with Disabilities

Announcing a new website called, "Nobody Left Behind: Emergency Preparedness for Persons with Disabilities" that can be found at www.nobodyleftbehind2.org. It features research in the making, at the University of Kansas’ Research and Training Center on Independent Living, that is collecting for the first time the empirical data on the status of local emergency management plans in addressing the needs of persons with mobility limitations. Probing research questions include: What designates a county, city, parish or borough in emergency management as a high-risk area requiring emergency planning for persons with mobility limitations? Has the local emergency manager received training in this area of preparedness? How actively involved are persons with disabilities in preparedness planning? What resources do emergency managers require to address the preparedness issues for persons with mobility limitations? What constitutes model approaches in the field?

A Call To Be a Part of this Research: Be it recollections or current experiences, we want to hear from persons with mobility limitations who have experienced a disaster. This on-line survey at www.nobodyleftbehind2.org  under “Consumer Survey” is easy and fast to take and will help shape the future of emergency planning! These consumers will remain anonymous but their stories will be told to the public, policy makers, emergency managers and responders. Do persons with a mobility limitation have equal access to evacuating a building? Are there accessible public or para-transit transportation systems for getting to and from shelters, medical care, and so on? What obstacles are there with receiving services at a shelter, or services to re-enter your work or home after a disaster? What worked and did not work for you in a disaster situation. We want to know this and more!