Abstract

Local emergency management agencies (EMAs), who are critical in disaster response and management in the US, frequently underserve their constituencies who identify as people with disabilities (PWD) and, more specifically, as deaf and hard of hearing (DHH). These shortfalls have still persisted even after policies such as the Americans with Disabilities Act have passed in an attempt to bridge these gaps. This thesis aims to explore the organizational actions & strategies local EMAs have taken towards disability inclusion, the barriers they run into, and explore whether increases in general disability-inclusive actions lead to increased DHH-specific inclusive actions to steer local emergency management toward more effective actions for these two groups. The data was collected through a nationwide survey of county-level emergency management directors with responses from 243 local EMAs and 48 states. The findings indicate that local EMAs provide more generic organizational actions such as inclusion in planning efforts and assessments, state they are mainly constrained by financial and staffing resources, and provide generic communication accommodations for the DHH. General disability-inclusive actions taken by local EMAs were also found to be strongly positively correlated with increased variety and effectiveness of DHH services.

Publication Date

11-2024

Document Type

Thesis

Student Type

Graduate

Degree Name

Science, Technology and Public Policy (MS)

Department, Program, or Center

Public Policy, Department of

College

College of Liberal Arts

Advisor

Qing Miao

Advisor/Committee Member

Sandra Rothenberg

Advisor/Committee Member

James Fugate

Campus

RIT – Main Campus

Download

Share

COinS