Caucus Chair:

Valerie Haven
AccessandWCInclusion@iaem.com

Caucus Vice Chair:
Robert Hill, CEM

Reference Librarian:
Howard Pierpont

Board Liaison:
Allison Farole, CEM, IAEM-USA Region 5 President
USARegion5President@iaem.com

Staff Liaison:
Terry Lightheart-Sadler, CEM, terry@iaem.com

IAEM-USA members interested in participating in this caucus should email the caucus staff liaison and tell them how you can contribute to or learn from this committee's important work.

Purpose Statement

The IAEM-USA Access & Inclusion Caucus is committed to addressing and advocating the inclusion of and servicing the needs of the nation’s access and functional needs population before, during and following disasters and emergencies.

Group Policy

Policy Guidelines

Meetings

2024 National Access and Functional Needs Symposium

2023 National Access and Functional Needs Symposium

Training and Webinar

• IAEM-USA Access and Whole Community Inclusion: Promoting Inclusive Personal Preparedness Strategies Before a Disaster (March 30, 2023)
• AEM-USA Access and Whole Community Inclusions: Keeping Everyone in the Loop Through Engagement Strategies (Oct. 6, 2022)
• Active Threat Preparedness: An Inclusive Approach (Sept 29,2021)
• IS368: Including People With Disabilities & Others With Access & Functional Needs in Disaster Operations (FEMA EMI course)
• 2022 National Access and Functional Needs Symposium

Updates

Check back for updates coming soon.

Resources

• IAEM/NEMA Quick Reference Guide for Emergency Managers
• NEMA/IAEM People with Disability  Access and Functional Needs Guidance
• Active Threat Preparedness: An Inclusive Approach (PDF)
• Project Civic Access (ADA.gov). Settlement agreements resolve cases that are part of the Department of Justice's Project Civic Access, a wide-ranging effort to ensure that counties, cities, towns, and villages comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act by eliminating physical and communication barriers that prevent people with disabilities from participating fully in community life. The Department has conducted reviews in 50 states, as well as Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, and is posting the agreements to help additional communities come into compliance with the Act.
• Access and Functional Needs Resources (State of Colorado)
• FEMA PrepTalk: We Succeed or Fail Together, L. Vance Taylor, Chief, Office of Access and Functional Needs, California Governor's Office of Emergency Operations (FEMA PrepTalks, June 18, 2020).
• CADAN: A presentation by Kate Browne, who discusses integrating local cultural knowledge in all phases and sectors to ensure more robust, just, sustainable outcomes.
• C-MIST Resource Lists (To help with the language that helps others begin to think of the whole community inclusion vs. just changing the label "special needs" to "AFN or Access and Functional Needs")
• The Little Book of Accessibility
• Inclusive EM Community Connect. Engage. Collaborate. Include. Learn.
• Shelter Emergency Response (Learn simple solutions for basic accessibility by watching the training video at the Emergency Shelter Preparedness page.)
• Tagged PDF (Tagged PDF is intended as an aid to businesses, public sector agencies, educational institutions, and others in meeting the PDF accessibility requirements of the update to the U.S. Federal Government’s “Section 508″.)

Archive

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