January 23, 2006—Four months after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita ravaged the Gulf Coast and almost five years after September 11th, emergency preparedness in the workplace is on the decline, but personal preparedness for people with disabilities is on the rise, according to a recently released Harris Interactive survey commissioned by the National Organization on Disabilitys (N.O.D.) Emergency Preparedness Initiative (EPI).
Furthermore, the disabled community has yet to experience the comparable decrease in their anxiety levels about their own personal safety that the population without disabilities has experienced, this population reporting a 12% decrease since 2001.
This new survey goes on to report a marked decrease in workplace preparedness for people with disabilities. Survey results reveal that 57% of people with disabilities indicate that they have a workplace plan, a figure that is down from 68% in 2003.
“This may not be as bad as it appears,” stated Hilary Styron, Director of N.O.D.’s EPI. “Immediately after 9/11 there was a major focus on development of workplace emergency plans for all employees. The decrease we see now may be attributed to fewer training opportunities provided in the workplace, limited-focus planning or lack of communication among emergency planners or task forces within a facility. Workplace emergency planning, just like community emergency planning is an on-going process that must include the active participation of people with disabilities.”
This telephone survey was conducted by Harris Interactive among a national cross-section of 1,001 adults aged 18 or over between December 15 and 18, 2005. The sample size for adults with disabilities is 161 and for adults without disabilities is 829.
For more on the survey, and on N.O.D., visit the Web site.
