Background

One in four adults in the U.S. have disabilities, making inclusion crucial across all public health sectors. Public health emergencies, like COVID-19, magnified these challenges. Individuals with intellectual disabilities were 2.5 times more likely to contract COVID-19 and 5.9 times more likely to die from COVID-19. Local emergency management offices play a key role in ensuring that emergency planning, response, and recovery is inclusive of people with disabilities (PWD).

Methods

Our literature review found few studies assessing the inclusivity of PWD in emergency preparedness. Most of the literature focused on disability inclusion at an individual- or organizational-level. Based on gaps in system-level disability inclusion, we partnered with The Arc of Pennsylvania to administer a poll in April 2025 among all 68 Pennsylvania County Emergency Management Coordinators to better understand how the needs of PWD are met in emergency management planning and practice.

Results

Analysis will include assessing whether emergency management plans include guidance on accommodating PWD as it relates to communications, transportation, evacuations, shelters, and pandemic-related care. We also aim to identify if and how counties partner with the disability community, participate in disability-specific trainings, and use data about the disability community to enhance disability inclusion.

Conclusion

The aim of this data collection is to determine how emergency management plans and procedures accommodate PWD and to identify their strengths and gaps. The Arc of Pennsylvania can use these findings to create supports and resources for county officials to better serve PWD in future emergencies.

Background. Autistic children are particularly vulnerable in emergencies ranging from natural disasters to pandemics. However, conventional disaster preparedness and response efforts often fail to address the specific needs of autistic children and their families. As the threat of climate disasters and future pandemics increases, it is essential to develop community-informed preparedness resources and response strategies that support autistic children and their families.

Methods. A mixed-methods study, including a survey and focus group, was conducted. Family members and decisional autistic youth above 18 were recruited from the Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (LEND) network across 61 U.S. institutions. Survey responses (n=20 and ongoing) informed the focus group (n=10), with both focused on participants' experiences with disaster preparedness, familiarity with preparedness resources, and interactions with emergency medical services (EMS).

Results. Preliminary survey responses indicate a need to improve disaster preparedness resources and response to be autism specific. The focus group revealed insights into lived experiences with disaster preparedness, perceived resource gaps, and recommendations for enhancing emergency response training. These findings will determine autism-specific and community-informed recommendations for the Pediatric Pandemic Network, a HRSA-funded national network of children’s hospitals dedicated to improving pediatric disaster readiness and response.

Conclusion. This research contributes to ongoing discussions on advancing equitable disaster preparedness and response efforts for autistic children. By ensuring recommendations are informed by the perspectives of autistic youth and their families, disaster-related policies and interventions can better address the unique needs of autistic children.

Background: In Ohio, 31% of individuals report having a disability, which is higher than the national rate of 25%. Additionally, 52% of individuals with disabilities in Ohio reported experiencing depression, compared to just 16% of those without disabilities. Exploring the walkability of neighborhoods where individuals with disabilities and mental health problems live can help identify factors that contribute to better mental health outcomes for these individuals. This study employed an innovative approach by applying unsupervised machine learning techniques to cluster high-dimensional data, revealing hidden and nonlinear correlations and trends across multiple geographically referenced datasets.

Methods: This study used Geographic Self-Organizing Maps, an unsupervised learning technique, to cluster neighborhood characteristics across multiple dimensions, including Area Deprivation Index, disability, depression, and walkability, to predict how depression rates vary across clusters. We then applied multiple linear regression to quantify the association between mental health, GeoSOM clusters, and disability.

Results: We found that walkability is higher in the most deprived areas where disability prevalence is highest and that the most walkable areas with higher rates of depressive symptoms and disability tend to be in the most central part of the county, where the city of Columbus is located.

Conclusions: The analysis highlights that the impact of disability on depression is different, conditional on neighborhood profile. Our findings have important implications for interventions aimed at fostering inclusive and accessible built environments in reducing depression prevalence in highly vulnerable areas.

Background:
Mobility is essential for wheelchair users with disabilities to actively participate in society. Low-floor buses, first introduced in 2003 in South Korea, are the only accessible bus for wheelchair users. In 2024, 73.2% of Seoul’s buses were low-floor buses. This study assessed why wheelchair users face challenges going outside and using low-floor buses.

Method:
We conducted a survey of 507 wheelchair users with physical disabilities in Seoul in 2024. The survey included four questions: 1) frequency of going outside in the past month, 2) reasons for being unable to go outside, 3) use of low-floor buses in the past 6 months, and 4) anticipated barriers to using low-floor buses.

Results:
The study found that 49.1% went outside less than three times a week in the past month. Furthermore, 61% reported that they were unable to go outside as much as they wished, and the top three reasons were ‘transportation inconvenience’(23.9%), ‘negative attitudes from others’(22.7%), and ‘lack of facilities for people with disabilities’(20.7%). Despite wide availability, only 33.7% used low-floor buses in the past 6 months. The most common anticipated barrier to using low-floor buses was ‘insufficient space for wheelchairs on buses’(31.8%), followed by ‘infrequent low-floor bus service’(31.2%), and ‘negative attitudes from others during boarding and leaving’(30.8%).

Conclusion:
This is the first study to assess the perceived barriers to going outside and using low-floor buses among wheelchair users in Seoul. Despite long-term availability of low-floor buses, wheelchair users in Seoul rarely utilize them, hindered by both social and physical barriers.

People with disabilities are disproportionately likely to lack access to transportation options compared to the general population, which can have negative consequences for accessing healthcare, employment, and maintaining overall quality of life. Travel instruction programs provide skills training to empower people with disabilities to travel independently using public transit. Despite the existence of many travel instruction programs across the United States, there is limited outcomes research available to evaluate these efforts. This project involves an evaluation of the individual training component offered by a longstanding travel instruction program—the New Jersey Travel Independence Program (NJTIP @ Rutgers)—to understand the program’s outcomes and develop recommendations for their evaluation efforts. We assess characteristics of program participants, rates of transit use at follow-up, and reasons for not using transit after training. Among a sample of N=40 participants (2017-2024) who completed follow-up at < 12 months, 12 months, and 24 months post-training, 67% reported independently using public transit at 24 months post-training. Among those not using transit, reasons were primarily related to changing activity patterns rather than gaps in skills. We discuss lessons learned from this preliminary study, including: strategies for conducting follow-up with limited staff resources, using standard data elements, and new follow-up measures to capture quality of life and community participation outcomes. Through this continued research, we aim to strengthen the evidence base for travel instruction initiatives, so that community-based organizations like NJTIP @ Rutgers can enhance the work of empowering people with disabilities with skills to live and travel independently.