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This guide highlights key disability concerns to officials and experts responsible for emergency planning in their communities. It seeks to assist them in developing plans that will take into account the needs and insights of people with disabilities before, during, and after emergencies. It also is designed to help emergency managers, planners, and responders make the best use of resources in the emergency preparedness planning process. These resources include people with disabilities.

It was developed in the context of the Emergency Preparedness Initiative (EPI), launched following the attacks of September 11, 2001, to ensure that emergency managers address disability concerns and that people with disabilities are included in all levels of emergency preparedness—planning, response, and recovery. It recognizes that special preparedness efforts are just as necessary for the many thousands of other natural and man-made disasters in the United States, including floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, fires, explosions, and transportation catastrophes.

It seeks to ensure that people with disabilities take measures to prepare themselves for emergencies; to ensure that preparedness officials across the country are including people with disabilities in the planning, training and exercises, and response activities undertaken at the community level; and to ensure that people with disabilities are themselves taking an active role in participating alongside preparedness officials before, during, and after an emergency.