Lex Frieden, Chairperson
September 2005

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NCD Calls for Urgent Action from the Department of Homeland Security

On September 19, NCD chairperson Lex Frieden wrote to Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff recommending urgent action by the Department in assisting people with disabilities who were affected by Hurricane Katrina.

NCD made the following recommendations for the next several months:

1. Establish a Point Person on Disability who reports directly to the Secretary and interacts directly with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) senior leadership team and is vested with the responsibility, authority, and resources for providing day-to-day leadership, guidance, and coordination for emergency preparedness, disaster relief, and recovery operations of the Federal Government on behalf of Americans with disabilities. The Point Person should be a qualified senior-level person, and should be in regular contact with other members of the DHS senior staff as well as members of the Interagency Coordinating Council on Emergency Preparedness for People with Disabilities, state and local authorities, and citizens, as necessary.

2. Develop and implement a coordinated Federal Disability Recovery Plan for Hurricane Katrina that focuses particularly on people with disabilities.

3. Establish a Hurricane Katrina Disability Access Advisory Group, made up of qualified people with disabilities and others with disability-specific disaster experience, who meet regularly with senior officials to help craft the Katrina recovery plan, share real-time information from the Gulf Coast region, and discuss events, challenges, and progress.

4. Use all available “on the ground” personnel to provide funds and target resources that specifically meet the identified critical needs of Katrina survivors with disabilities, including

• assisting with the restoration of the organizations that serve them;

• identifying accessible temporary and permanent housing and addressing the specific requests of leaders in the devastated areas and those in areas to which people with disabilities are being evacuated;

• ensuring effective coordination with social services, health services, education services, and other human services providers and agencies throughout the recovery and restoration process;

• ensuring the use of accessible communications technology for people with disabilities during the region’s recovery from this disaster to help assess damage, collect information, and deploy supplies; and

• ensuring that the response to and the recovery from Hurricane Katrina comply with federal law requiring nondiscrimination and accessibility, including the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act.

NCD also made recommendations for the next several years:

1. Recovery, rebuilding, and resettlement operations must have the appropriate resources, medical equipment, supplies, and training to address the needs of people with disabilities. Many individuals with disabilities will require accessible housing, appropriate health services, and assistive technologies. At the outset and during all its phases, these operations should include people with disabilities with experience and expertise on these matters.

2. Recovery, rebuilding, and resettlement personnel must be educated and trained to support the independence and dignity of persons with disabilities in the months and years following Hurricane Katrina. People with disabilities should assist in the development of the response personnel and should be supported by the appropriate accommodations.

3. A universal design approach should be followed to meet the needs of people with disabilities affected by recovery, rebuilding, and resettlement efforts in the Gulf Coast region. The Federal Government should mandate universal design and full accessibility for all new construction in the region affected by Hurricane Katrina.

4. Disability organizations must participate in all Hurricane Katrina recovery, rebuilding, and resettlement government (and non-government) operations and relied on for ongoing advice, guidance, and leadership.

The entire letter can be found at http://www.ncd.gov/newsroom/correspondence/2005/chertoff_09-19-05.htm.

On September 23, Secretary Chertoff signed a memorandum stating his concern for the suffering of people with disabilities in the affected regions. He called attention to the large number of people with disabilities in these states—close to one million people, according to Census Bureau data.

Secretary Chertoff directed Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) officials to add to their staffs specialists in issues affecting people with disabilities. These individuals would help with the complex issues we are so familiar with:

• ensuring the availability of durable medical equipment, such as mobility aids, adaptive accessories, and hearing aids;

• ensuring that there are adequate stocks of medicines needed by people with disabilities;

• ensuring that there is sufficient accessible housing; and dealing with issues that arise.

Secretary Chertoff also ordered that the needs of people with disabilities be fully incorporated in future emergency preparedness planning.

NCD Seeking Information About the Experiences of People with Disabilities Affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita

On September 21, NCD issued a request for information on how Hurricanes Katrina and Rita affected people with disabilities and their relatives, friends, and neighbors, and how they affected organizations assisting people with disabilities. NCD is asking people with disabilities to share their experiences, using the questions at the end of this document as guidance for their response.

On September 2, NCD called for a federal disability response and recovery plan (http://www.ncd.gov/newsroom/news/2005/r05-496.htm) and published two briefs on Hurricane Katrina-affected areas. The first brief, (http://www.ncd.gov/newsroom/publications/2005/katrina2.htm), was released September 2; the second, (http://www.ncd.gov/newsroom/publications/2005/katrina.htm), September 7. Issues raised include the effects of Hurricane Katrina on people with disabilities, where help can be sought, the response of the government, additional help needed, subsequent actions that must be undertaken, and the response of the disability community to the hurricane.

In addition, NCD published an April 15, 2005, report titled Saving Lives: Including People with Disabilities in Emergency Preparedness (http://www.ncd.gov/newsroom/publications/2005/saving_lives.htm). The report outlines emergency preparedness, disaster relief, and homeland security programs, so that the Federal Government can plan, prepare, and act to include people with disabilities in all facets of emergency planning and execution.

Hurricane Katrina has brought focus on the need to document the experiences of people with disabilities from a broad array of cultures and economic levels as well as the experiences of disability-oriented organizations involved in responding to the disaster. These experiences will help NCD better target its guidance to policymakers in assisting the tens of thousands of people with disabilities affected in the Gulf Coast region.

The following questions can be used as guidance in responding to NCD’s request for information. Please send this information to NCD by e-mail (info@ncd.gov), U.S. Mail (National Council on Disability, 1331 F Street NW, Suite 850, Washington, DC 20004), or fax (202-272-2022) by October 12, 2005. Please indicate whether you would like to make your response anonymous.

1. How were people with disabilities provided with information about the severity of the emergency caused by the hurricanes, how to prepare for them, and how to evacuate?

2. Was individual assistance (such as personal attendants, sign language interpreters, readers, and service animals) available to people with disabilities during and after the emergency?

3. What assistive devices (such as wheelchairs, walkers, canes, crutches, speech-enabled or braille notetakers, pagers, closed captioning, TTYs, hearing aids, and batteries) were people with disabilities able to keep with them during or after the hurricanes? What assistive devices were they not able to keep? How were these assistive devices replaced?

4. What accessible temporary housing or shelter was offered to people with disabilities?

5. What accessible transportation was provided to people with disabilities during evacuations, distribution of food and water, and relocation to temporary shelters or housing? Were people who use assistive devices able to keep them during such transport?

6. What medical and mental health treatment, such as emergency care, counseling, or medication, was offered to people with disabilities? What types of accessibility problems arose?

7. What schools offered accommodations to students with disabilities affected or dislocated as a result of the hurricanes?

8. What types of temporary or permanent employment opportunities were offered to people with disabilities?

9. What government services (such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, subsidized housing, food vouchers, or any other government assistance) were, and continue to be, made available to people with disabilities?

10. Describe the immediate, short-term, and long-term aid provided by private, civic, faith-based, advocacy organizations or by other groups to people with disabilities.

Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act (CRIPA) and Hurricane Recovery Efforts

In the wake of ongoing hurricane recovery efforts, recommendations published in NCD’s August 2005 report The Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act: Has It Fulfilled Its Promise? (http://www.ncd.gov/newsroom/publications/2005/personsact.htm) underscore the urgency of recovery efforts for people residing in a variety of institutions.

The report examines the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) enforcement of CRIPA, which was enacted by Congress in 1980 to protect the rights of people in state-run nursing homes, mental health facilities, institutions for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and correctional facilities for children and adults.

The isolated nature of institutions and the vulnerability of their residents combine to create environments ripe for abuse. Three and a half million Americans reside in institutions. One and a half million Americans reside in 17,000 nursing homes, and 30 percent of those facilities have been cited for harming residents or placing them at risk of serious injury or death.

The report makes recommendations for ways DOJ could better protect the rights of people in institutions, including adopting strategic and multifaceted enforcement, broadening the scope of investigations, resolving cases through enforceable consent decrees, increasing technical assistance to states to help them comply with federal laws, increasing federal agency coordination to support human and civil rights, making better use of the press, and including more and consistent data in its annual reports to Congress.

Based on recent news reports from the Gulf Coast regarding the treatment of people with disabilities residing in institutional settings, NCD CRIPA recommendations should be followed in the rebuilding of that devastated area.

Legislative Update

On September 15, Senator Michael B. Enzi (R-WY), chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee and Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA), ranking member of the HELP Committee, introduced the Child Care Disaster Act of 2005 (S. 1715), a bill to provide relief for students, schools, and students with disabilities affected by Hurricane Katrina.

On September 26, Senators Enzi and Kennedy introduced the Public Health and Health Insurance Emergency Response Act of 2005 (S. 1769), a comprehensive health care initiative to aid victims of Hurricane Katrina, which includes components to deal with ongoing public health, mental health, and personal health care needs of hurricane victims. The bill was referred to the HELP Committee.

On September 22, Representative Charles W. Boustany, Jr. (R-LA) introduced the Assistance for Individuals with Disabilities Affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita Act of 2005 (H.R. 3864), a bill to provide vocational rehabilitation services to individuals with disabilities affected by Hurricane Katrina or Hurricane Rita. This legislation was referred to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.

In addition, several other proposals have been introduced in the 109th Congress that would affect Medicaid coverage for survivors of Hurricane Katrina. These proposals assist states directly affected by Hurricane Katrina and states that have taken in Medicaid recipients who have been displaced as a result of Hurricane Katrina. They include H.R. 3671, H.R. 3698, H.R. 3708, H.R. 3735, S. 1637, S. 1672, and S. 1688.