Development of a Person-Centered Approach to Emergency Preparedness for Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.

People with disabilities and older adults face significant challenges in emergency preparedness and response, leading to a disproportionate negative impact during disasters. This project addresses these issues by focusing on inclusivity, accessibility, and individualized approaches to emergency preparedness to further develop the prototype Person-Centered System for Emergency Preparedness (PSEP). PSEP improves the ability of individuals with disabilities to access and understand essential information, self-manage more effectively, and communicate their needs in emergency situations, and it enables first responders to more readily understand how best to communicate with and support those in need. Project objectives are to build off the Phase I prototype to develop a product-ready system based on 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; and to conduct iterative development and evaluation of the product-ready system through partnerships with the Arc of Lane County and the State of Oregon Health Authority�s Emergency Preparedness and Response Program. The target population for this Phase II project emphasizes individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families served by the Arc of Lane County, but cuts across the broader range of individuals with disabilities served by the Oregon Health Authority during Year II product validation. The primary outcomes from this project are: (1) a commercial product that gives individuals with disabilities a universally designed tool to improve self-management and communication of needs, and enables formal and informal first responders to more effectively communicate and render aid in an emergency; and (2) usability evaluation and validation data that maximize product-market fit.