Issues paper - Emergency planning and response (Auslan)

Emergency planning and response Issues paper

The Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability has released an Issues Paper.

We invite you to respond. Your response will help us in our work.

We are interested in understanding how emergency planning and response can include and support people with disability.

We want to know what should be done to prevent people with disability from experiencing violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation during emergencies.

Key issues

We are concerned about people with disability being left behind during emergencies. This includes the current COVID-19 pandemic.

We are also concerned about how people with disability are treated during bushfires, droughts and floods.

This Issues Paper includes 10 key issues.

One issue is about accessible information.

Sometimes information and news in emergencies is not accessible to people with disability. For example it is not in plain English, or not captioned.

We want to know how governments and other agencies share information with people with disability and how this can be improved.

Another issue is about access to essential services.

Many people with disability need help with meals, toileting, showering and getting dressed.

People providing these supports should be properly trained in things like infection control. We want to know how services can be delivered safely during an emergency.

Another issue is about access to health care.

We have heard people with disability face barriers accessing medications, ambulances, and health supplies.

This includes personal protective equipment and sterilising equipment. We are interested in hearing about these experiences.

We have included other topics in this issues paper. These are food and nutrition, housing, education, income, domestic violence, safeguards in closed facilities and community participation.

Including people with disability in emergency planning

The United Nations says that including people with disabilities in all stages of emergency planning and response can help save lives.

We want to hear how people with disability are included, or should be included, in emergency planning and response.

Your response

At the end of our Issues Paper, there is a list of questions about these topics.

We invite you to respond. You do not have to answer every question.

You can respond in any way you like. This might be in writing or by a video recording.

To read the full Issues Paper, and for more details on how to respond, go to the Policy & research section on our website.