Development of a Person-Centered System for Emergency Preparedness for Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

People with disabilities face significant challenges in emergency preparedness and response, leading to a disproportionate negative impact during disasters. This project addresses these health equity issues by focusing on inclusivity, accessibility, and individualized approaches to emergency preparedness. The applicant proposes to build on its existing work in personcentered and self-directed solutions for Individuals with cognitive disabilities by creating a universally-designed web-based system to improve the ability of individuals to communicate their needs in emergency situations, and to enable first responders to more readily understand how best to communicate with and support those in need. The project has three objectives: develop a minimum viable product prototype within the CMIST framework (Communications, Maintaining Health, Independence, Support, Safety and Self-Determination, and Transportation) to guide emergency and public health preparedness planners and practitioners in addressing the major domains of need for individuals and populations with disabilities and other access and functional needs (Mace,et al., 2018, Wolf-Fordham, 2022). validate the prototype with key user groups including individuals with cognitive disabilities, family members, community members, and emergency responders. identify requirements for a complete Phase II system.