RILC and Rockland County Fire & Emergency Services Recently Conducted a FEMA Region II Core Advisory Group Briefing

Rockland Independent Living Center and Rockland County Fire & Emergency Services Recently Conducted a FEMA Region II Core Advisory Group Briefing to Discuss the Needs of Individuals with Disabilities with Regard to Emergency Preparedness

On December 7th FEMA, in conjunction with the Rockland Independent Living Center, conducted a Core Advisory Group Briefing to discuss the Access and Functional Needs Concept for expanding participation of persons with disabilities within Rockland County emergency management planning. James Flemming, FEMA’s Region II Disability Integration Specialist (RDIS), provided a briefing and facilitated interactive exercises to individuals with disabilities, local officials, emergency managers, and representatives of social and human service agencies to drive home the importance of significantly increasing the number of persons in the County’s emergency management planning process. He also spearheaded the presentation and discussion and reviewed promising practices as well as challenges faced. The event was held at Rockland County Fire & Emergency Services Station at 35 Firemen’s Memorial Drive in Pomona and was attended by staff of Rockland Independent Living Center as well as forty members of the general public and various County organizations.

Jim Flemming has addressed disability access issues for more than 20 years and worked directly with numerous disability rights, advocacy groups and organizations across the country. He has published more than 100 articles on ADA access and has served for more than 17 years as a contractor in developing ADA compliance, emergency evacuation and other programs for a wide variety of transit authorities around the country. As a FEMA RDIS, he has served as the Lead Disability Integration Advisor (LDIA) on numerous disasters; including Hurricane Irene, Tropical Storm Lee, and Super Storm Sandy.

During the presentation Flemming indicated, “Inclusive emergency management and the significant participation of persons with actual disabilities is fundamentally considered a ‘contact’, not a ‘spectator’ sport where people with disabilities are personally and interactively involved with everyone else in the making of emergency management decisions that affect them.” His comments are consistent with both the spirit and letter of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which guarantee as a civil right equality of access by persons with disabilities.

He added that local jurisdictions and the ‘whole community’ have a responsibility to ensure the active participation of people with actual disabilities in emergency management planning. With such participation, the actual needs and requirements of people with disabilities will figure prominently in resulting emergency plans.

Qualified People with disabilities in the US must, by law, be able to participate in and have access to the benefits of any program, service, or activity of the federal government and other public entities. Equal access to disaster assistance programs – and in the active planning thereof – is a prime example.

“One possible method of adding greater resiliency to and representation of the entire community is through the formation of a Core Advisory Group (CAG), whose membership includes individuals with a variety of actual disabilities, along with other key members such as local officials, first responders, and social and human service agencies,” he stated and added that these inclusive actions, by lending a key perspective, can help guarantee that the interests and needs of persons with disabilities are central to the emergency management planning process. More information can be found by contacting Donna Ehrenberg, Director of Independent Living Services at Rockland Independent Living Center: 845-624-1366 ext. 113 or dehrenberg@rilc.org .

The mission of Rockland Independent Living Center is to provide advocacy and leadership in the creation and development of an accessible and integrated community for people with disabilities, so that they may pursue lifestyles of their choice. For more information about the services provided by RILC visit www.rilc.org or call 845-624-1366.

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Photo credits:  Risa B. Hoag

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