"SHARING SUCCESS! RESOURCES FOR INCORPORATING AT REUSE IN

EMERGENCY PLANNING" WEBINAR

~ OCTOBER 25, 2011 ~



CAROLYN PHILLIPS: This is Carolyn Phillips with

the Pass It On Center. Today's webinar is on Assistive

Technology Reuse in Emergency Planning.

We are definitely going to be sharing successes,

and we're going to be talking about some exciting things

that have developed and some trends that we're tracking.

And we're also going to be sharing some resources for

incorporating AT reuse in emergency planning.

I'm thrilled that I have Pat Heineman with me

today, who has become, you know, a recent partner of ours

from the Inclusion Research Institute and the Inclusive

Preparedness Center.

I'm not sure how many folks of you are familiar

with the Inclusive Preparedness Center, but you're going to

learn more about the great work they are doing and some of

our collaboration. And Pat will spend a little bit of time

exploring some of that with you. So you definitely want to

get to know Pat and learn more.

We also have Caroline Van Howe with us. And I was

wondering if, Caroline, you could tell us a little bit

about ATIA.

I'm excited, as I said earlier, about ATIA. The

Pass It On Center has had a strong collaboration with ATIA

over the past almost six years. And so we're excited to

continue that. And we will be there with a booth and a

whole strand. Liz Persaud has been our strand coordinator

and has done a great job pulling that together.

So, Caroline, if you don't mind talking about that

for just a moment since you are with us. And then I'll

turn it over to Liz.

CAROLINE VAN HOWE: Thanks, Carolyn.

And welcome, everybody. Delighted to talk about my

number one favorite topic, ATIA, which is the Assistive

Technology Industry Association.

And we have been partnering, as Carolyn said, with

the Pass It On Center to promote the use of assistive

technology reuse, reutilization and also the growing need

for emergency preparedness and awareness of how people with

disabilities using assistive technology need to be assisted

in different ways.

As you may know, we have two conferences a year,

one in Chicago, which is taking place next week at the

Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel and Convention Center, and

also one in Orlando, which is at the end of January. This

is our third year in Chicago, and I think it's going to be

the 12th or 13th year in Orlando.

And as Carolyn mentioned, there is a dedicated AT

reuse strand where anyone who is interested in any aspects

of AT reuse can attend the sessions. And those are easily

identified by the key word.

And in the exhibit hall we do have a number of

people who attend the exhibit hall who are genuinely

interested in assistive technology who do not attend the

educational sessions. So the exhibit hall there is for the

general promotion to raise awareness and also show off the

possibilities of assistive technology and the supporting

programs and services.

We also have -- bearing in mind, many organizations

have more severe travel budget limitations than they've had

in the past.

We also have a growing webinar series where the

roster of our conference speakers also are able to provide

webinars on a number of different topics which are also

available for CEUs.

So we're finding that more and more people are

taking advantage of the webinars from our conference

speakers who are also available to do webinars.

That's enough about ATIA. If anyone's interested

in more details, it's all available on the ATIA website,

which is www.ATIA.org.

And I'll turn it back to Carolyn. Thank you,

Carolyn.

CAROLYN PHILLIPS: Excellent. Thank you so much,

Caroline.

Really, as I said, very excited about ATIA. I'm

looking forward to seeing you in Chicago shortly.

So Liz is going to be walking us through exactly

how we get our credits -- how you get your credits and some

other details that we definitely want to make sure that

you're aware of when it comes to working and getting credit

for participating here and also how we can improve our

webinars.

So Liz has been developing our training and

outreach. She's our development coordinator.

So, Liz, go ahead and take it away.

LIZ PERSAUD: Thank you, Carolyn.

Hey, everyone. Thanks for joining us today for our

webinar. We're really happy to say that we offer credits

for all of our webinars and all of our trainings. We do

offer CEUs and CRCs.

And for all of you that are attending that are

interested in getting CEUs, those are administered through

our partnership with the AAC Institute.

So what you will do is visit the AAC Institute.

It's aacinstitute.org. You'll follow their page for CEUs.

And you'll look for our webinar, and you'll click on it.

And that's how you -- fill out the information there, and

follow their instructions to receive the certification.

For this particular webinar, we are offering 1.5

CRCs. I was just looking at my e-mail and seeing that a

number of you have already e-mailed me to let me know that

you need your verification form.

So again, if anyone needs CRCs for this webinar,

feel free to e-mail me. It's liz@passitoncenter.org. And

I will send you your verification form when the webinar is

over. So again, it's 1.5 CRCs for today's webinar.

We also have an evaluation that we would like for

you to fill out at the end of this webinar. These

evaluations don't take a lot of time.

And what it really does is gives us feedback on

information that you guys want to learn more about that we

can offer via webinars, just giving us feedback about

anything that is interesting y'all that we can provide from

the Pass It On Center point of view and from our

standpoint.

So if you would just take the time at the end of

the webinar, fill out this brief evaluation, we definitely

appreciate that and definitely value your feedback given to

this webinar.

So again, if y'all have any questions or need

anything, you can definitely get in touch with me. Thank

you.

CAROLYN PHILLIPS: Excellent. Thank you so much,

Liz.

We are really serious about that we listen to what

you have to say about this evaluation. So it just takes a

few moments to fill that out. And I did post the actual

link to the actual survey in the public-chat area, which is

over to the left, and it's at the top.

Right below the public-chat area is an area where

you can type information in. So know that we'll be also

paying attention to this public chat as we move through

this webinar.

And if you'd like to make a comment, we'll pay

attention to that, and we'll try to comment back. We see

this as more of a dialogue, so feel free to interact with

us in that way.

And, Liz, I think I saw that your hand went up. So

let me release the mic.

LIZ PERSAUD: I just wanted to also let everyone

know that we record these webinars. Kimberly Griffin, our

transcriptionist, is on board with us.

Hey, Kimberly. And thanks for being on with us.

She records our webinars. And if you give us just

a few weeks, we'll have the recording, the PowerPoint, and

also the audio and the written transcription on the Pass It

On Center website on the webinar page.

CAROLYN PHILLIPS: Excellent. Thank you so much,

Liz.

And thank you, Kimberly. We really do appreciate

that service. We get lots of positive feedback about that.

So we do want to welcome you and give you an

overview of what we're going to be talking about today. We

have been exploring, and we want to explore with you, a

model of what we've been doing when it comes to

incorporating reuse into emergency planning.

We had two summits that we're going to focus on.

Amy Goldman was fundamental to the success of these. She's

our partner at Temple University and the director of PIAT,

the Pennsylvania assistive technology program.

But she has been really fundamental in helping us

with our Pass It On Center operations when it comes to

looking at emergency management.

And so, Amy, feel free to jump in at any time if

you are able to.

But what we did is we created these two summits in

Region III and Region IV. And so I'm going to be sharing

information. And we'll be exploring what are some of the

outcomes of this; and what are some of the things that

happened at those meetings; and where are we headed with

that.

These summits were customized, meaning that they

weren't cookie cutter. And we looked at what it was that

Region III needed; what are the strengths of Region III;

what are some things we could do different in Region III.

And we developed an agenda and worked with very specific

partners.

Once again, that was actually the brain child of

Amy, the way that she was able to pull that together. And

we can give you more details about that.

And then Region IV we looked specifically at Region

IV -- and I'll show you in just a moment a map so you can

see what states we're talking about in these regions.

And so Region IV we looked at what are some of the

emergencies that actually do happen; what are some of the

partners that we need to think about. And we explored

that.

So what are the statewide emergency management

organizations we need to be connected with; who are the

disability providers; and what AT act and what AT reuse

programs and other stakeholders that we need to think

about. So we'll talk a little bit about how we went

through that process.

And then the main thing that I'm going to be

talking about, too, is how to sustain this. How do you

develop this type of network that can reach across county

borders, state borders and really assist each other, assist

our neighbors in an emergency through assistive technology

reuse.

So we're going to talk about some action steps and

some things that were discussed, and kind of as things are

moving, because this is definitely one of those projects

that has been kind of -- we're looking at what's been

accomplished so far, but we're seeing a lot of things that

are emerging even as we're talking and growing.

There's been some very exciting conversation, and

we're looking at developing a pilot project. It's actually

starting in Pennsylvania with FEMA, with the assistive

technology reuse programs, with the AT act program in

Pennsylvania being the lead and then the Pass It On Center

being a part of that.

And we're very excited about that, especially with

the collaborations with the Centers For Independent Living

and all of our other partnerships. So excited to see

what's going to happen there and see what lessons we can

learn.

So we're also going to discuss resources that came

from these summits that are designed really to help

individuals but also agencies that are working in emergency

planning; address what are the access issues to assistive

technology, and how do you get those devices, and what do

you need to think about when it comes to Memorandums of

Understanding and Agreement; what's the difference between

the two.

And then also look at some really cool tools that

have been developed by the Inclusive Preparedness Center.

And as I said, I'm thankful, Pat, that you're with

us today.

And then we're going to discuss our Pass It On

Center guidelines for state plans, which we did put

together. Trish Redmon has been outstanding in helping us

develop this tool. And it is available on our website.

And I'm going to walk you through that tool a

little bit. And you can see what some of our states that

are working on these state plans are actually -- what their

framework is.

And then we'll talk about future state plans -- I

mean future summit plans. So that is the basic overview of

what we're going to be doing today.

The background. Wanted to give you a little

insight as to how this came to be.

When the Pass It On Center was created, part of the

reason why we were created is because Assistant Secretary

John Hager was pulled into a committee working on

evaluating -- it was mitigation primarily -- looking at

what happened during Hurricane Katrina, and how was it that

people got separated from their assistive technology, and

what happened as a result of that, and how could assistive

technology reuse help in emergencies.

So Assistant Secretary John Hager was actually in

the Department of Education and, as you know, working

with -- as many of you know, working with the Assistive

Technology Act programs. And so this became part of the

Pass It On Center objectives, primarily because of

Hurricane Katrina.

So we've learned quite a bit as we've moved through

this journey and as we've tried to meet our grant

objectives with the Pass It On Center.

And it's been very exciting to watch this emerge

and also, as we're developing tools, see that a lot of this

really is making a difference for folks.

So what we did is we held a meeting, and it was a

national leadership meeting of folks in the assistive

technology world and the disability world and then also in

the community of emergency managers from literally across

the United States.

And we got everybody together in Washington,

D.C. in March of 2010 and had a real focused meeting. And

there were a lot of great ideas that came out of that. And

we have moved forward with a whole host of those ideas and

really started incorporating those into the way that we're

operating in our plans, overall plans.

All that information I'll be able to show you in

just a moment. It's on our website. So if you want to go

back and see, you know, what did this group come up with in

March of 2010, and how are we progressing, then you can see

it there.

But the summit was actually one of those ideas that

came out of that meeting. And our first one was the FEMA

Region IV summit, which took place in April of 2011 here in

Atlanta. And the agenda was actually sketched out -- basic

agenda was sketched out by this group in Washington.

The main idea -- in this next paragraph what I'm

talking about is actually the FEMA Region IV summit was

convened by the Pass It On Center and also the U.S.

Department of Education, the Office of Special Education

and Rehabilitative Services. And then Department of Labor

jumped in.

And we were very thankful that RESNA catalyst

program, which provides technical assistance to the AT act

programs, was able to jump in and help us out too.

We also had our partners, our AT act programs from

around the region that were able to help us with a lot of

in-kind support.

Both the FEMA Region IV and Region III summits were

designed in this way where we had directors of the AT act

programs in those states as the folks that actually sent

out and invited and nominated delegates to participate in

these summits.

And so we had this one point of contact, but we

wanted to make sure that everybody was thinking

progressively and inviting people.

And it was very cool because a lot of the folks,

when they got together in the room at these big meetings,

we found that people had heard of each other's names. Or

they received e-mails from each other, and they were like,

Oh, you are so and so; and, Oh, my gosh, I've been wanting

to meet you.

And so we found that a lot of organic networking

started happening. A lot of relationship building that

continues to grow has happened.

There are folks that really and truly had no

awareness of what assistive technology really was if they

were coming from the emergency-management side of the

house, vice versa.

There's a whole acronym soup. I mean it's like

alphabet soup, but a bunch of acronyms. And a lot of

structure within the emergency-management world that a lot

of folks within the assistive-technology world and the AT

reuse world were not familiar with.

So we found a lot of collaboration, and we found a

lot of points of common interest that we have been building

on, which is wonderful.

And it all goes back to that main point of contact,

which is our AT act directors and the programs in those

specific states.

So there should be a picture coming up here, and

you may or may not see it. But it's a group of folks that

were actually at that meeting in Washington, D.C. I

definitely am a big believer in documenting whenever we've

got folks together. So that's what we did here. And so

there's a whole bunch of folks, and you can see the list of

people that were there.

But wide range of agencies represented, anywhere

from Homeland Security to the Red Cross to the UCEDs, the

university programs, to Department of Agriculture,

Department of Transportation. FEMA, obviously, was

involved.

And then we had national leaders that were involved

and also our state AT act programs, some very specific ones

who have been leaders in this area from around the country.

So we were excited to bring this group together and

see what we could accomplish when we were all working

together. And that's just a photograph of the folks that

were there.

This next slide, I wanted to show you a breakout so

you could get an idea of exactly what regions we're talking

about and the states that are involved in those two

regions.

So Region IV is the southeast. So we have Atlanta,

and then we have Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky,

North Carolina, South Carolina, and Florida involved. And

we had representatives from all of those states.

We also had some folks that came in from Virginia

that were there, which was wonderful to see them. And

Kansas was represented, and that was great.

Because some folks just were interested in, well,

what are you developing; and how can we learn from what

you're doing; and maybe we want to do this in our region.

We are starting to hear from other regions that

they are interested in doing a summit similar to this. And

so if that's something that you're interested in, we can

talk about that. I've got some slides in just a moment

that we can discuss that further.

We also -- if you look at Region III, you'll see

that it's West Virginia; Virginia; Pennsylvania;

Washington, D.C.; Delaware. And I hope I'm not missing

anyone. But those were the states that were mainly

involved in that summit.

And then we also had someone that came down from

New Jersey. And that was great to see more of that

collaboration and folks reaching across, once again,

interested in seeing what we are creating and how are we

effecting change at a grassroots level by these development

of these networks. And that was very cool to see.

So we're going to talk more about some of our goals

at these summits. So our goals were very simple. It was

basically to get folks really talking and come out with a

plan.

I'm a big believer in that I don't like to meet

without an agenda. And I also don't like to meet without a

purpose, you know, without some kind of goal or without a

plan.

That's something that's just a philosophy of mine.

But we've seen that this was extremely important in these

summits.

So our first goal was really to define the role of

assistive technology reuse and disaster planning, which a

lot of people in our world, the AT reuse and AT world, that

makes a lot of sense to us. But it didn't necessarily make

a lot of sense to some of our folks that are in emergency

management.

And so we were able to explain what we are exactly

talking about when we talk about assistive technology and

what we're talking about when we're talking about the reuse

of assistive technology.

A point of clarification here. We are not trying

to replace equipment permanently with reused equipment. We

want to make sure that we can actually just fill a gap, get

the equipment to individuals at their time of need that are

affected by the emergency, and then they can use that

equipment until they are able to get equipment that's true

replacement equipment.

So we are not advocating for replacing brand-new

equipment or new equipment with reused equipment. So just

so everybody's aware.

We also do believe in consumer choice. And if a

person decides, Hey, I really like this bedside commode

better than the one I had, okay. That's okay.

So the other goal is to identify the needs for

rapid response and developing that system for delivering AT

services after a disaster.

And when we're talking about AT services, those of

you who are familiar with the AT act law, you know how

that's defined.

That it's training; it's matching equipment; it's

bringing folks together -- whether it's a speech therapist

or an occupational therapist; an assistive technology

practitioner; rehab engineer; you know, physical

therapist -- that would be able to assist us in delivering

this equipment and these services and doing it in a very

responsible way.

One of the goals was to develop a sustainable

network that could meet the needs in emergency management.

And I'm excited to say that we're actually seeing that

manifest in a very significant way where people are able to

get their equipment in a matter of days and hours even, as

opposed to weeks and months and unfortunately even years.

We have seen where people haven't gotten the equipment that

they need.

So we're starting to see that the response time is

amazing. It's so much better. And people are now able to

pick up the phone and work across those county lines and

those state lines and really be able to assist each other.

So this is exciting to witness and be a part of.

And then developing the state-level plans and

really looking at what is it that each state needs to do in

order to have a strong AT reuse plan so that they can serve

their own state but then also, looking at it from a bigger

perspective, the stronger that each of us -- the stronger

that Georgia is, for example, then we're able to help

Alabama; the stronger Alabama is, then they can help

Georgia, and vice versa. And we see that growing again and

again. And we're excited to see that.

This is an image of the Pass It On Center website.

And specifically what I've done here is I've highlighted

the emergency-management area. And I am showing you

just -- you know, September was National Preparedness

Month.

But if you look over to the right, you'll see that

the FEMA Region III and Region IV summit information is

there. And then also at the very top there's a drop-down

menu where you can click on Region III or Region IV.

And we have still posted, and will continue to keep

that information up, all the information from those

summits.

So this is the information from the FEMA Region IV

summit. As I said, it was hosted April 27th and 28th in

Atlanta, Georgia. We actually hosted it at the Georgia

Tech Center.

And so you can see the report. We have a full

report that Trish Redmon worked on with the rest of our

team helping support that effort. Amy and Liz and Joy and

myself helping with that, but primarily Trish Redmon did

that.

And you can look at the PDF or our Word document.

There's a lot of good information there. You can see what

the reports were, what the presentations were about, and

some of the information that was discussed in our small

groups and how that informed people making their state

plans in a bigger way.

This specific page, if you click on the knowledge

base, it will take you to information in PowerPoint

presentations directly related to the FEMA Region IV event

that we had.

This next page is actually just another screen

shot. And this is the FEMA Region III summit. In here the

first document you'll see -- and as you can see, this is a

little different than the Region IV because we learned some

more information.

We found that it was helpful to give people

presummit reading so that that would inform folks as to

what exactly is assistive technology. And we got very

specific.

If you click on that document there, you will see

assistive technology defined. Then you will also see it

broken down into very specific groups.

So you'll get an explanation for what alternative

augmentative communication is. You'll see what kind of AT

solutions we're talking about for folks that have

hearing-related issues or sensory-related issues,

vision-related issues, learning disabilities,

mobility-related AT.

And then you'll also find

emergency-management-related resources. And so what we

were trying to do is educate everyone who came so that we

could hit the ground running once we got there. And we

found that that was a great approach.

So the next piece right below that -- and I'm

actually going to show you just the acronyms alone. That's

a part of that document in the next screen.

But the next piece here, it's resources for

developing your state plan. I'm going to show you more

details about that in just a moment.

But we do have links to different plans that you

can look at. We're seeing where some folks are going to

start posting their plan.

Georgia, we've been actively working on our plan.

Our peers over in South Carolina have really developed a

pretty significant plan, which is great. And in Florida,

the Pass It On Center team is going to be going down and

having a summit just for Florida looking at assistive

technology and reuse and emergency management.

So we're going to be doing that right before the

ATIA conference, Caroline, in Orlando. So we're looking

forward to that event.

And then the next piece here, it says summit

presentations and resources. And you can actually see what

the agenda looked like for the Region III summit. You can

see the participant list.

And the helpful thing about that is get an idea of

who all did we invite, and why did we invite these specific

folks, and how those folks have come together and really

collaborated.

There were some really creative collaborations that

came out of that and, as I said, some really great organic

relationships began to develop.

And then we have presentations. We have very

specific PowerPoints and also Word documents that you can

look at. And all these links are here. And I just wanted

to make sure that you were aware that those documents are

there and those resources are there for you.

Here is just a part -- it's one page of the

Emergency Management and AT Reuse Reference and Resource

Guide that I was showing you the link to earlier. And this

is just one page of common emergency-management acronyms.

I've got to tell you that our partners in the

emergency-management world talk in acronyms like no one

I've ever met. So I find myself looking at this all the

time so that I'll understand exactly what we're talking

about. And it has been invaluable, and it's something that

continues to grow.

But I just wanted to let you know how really

helpful that resource guide and the reference guide really

is. So it's there for you to download, so feel free to do

that.

So here is an example of the agenda. This is the

agenda from our September conference at the FEMA Region III

conference. And as you can see, our theme was successful

strategies, innovative partnerships, and futures planning.

And I would say that's what all of it was really about.

And the agenda, we moved really quickly through

this but very purposefully.

Looking at our partners, we had Beth Mineo, the

director of the Center for Disability Studies at the

University of Delaware, who was a partner there that

actually was able to help contribute and pull this whole

meeting together.

Of course Amy Goldman was there.

And then Carl Cameron, who is the president and CEO

of the Inclusion Research Institute and Inclusive

Preparedness Center was there with Pat. And as I said,

you'll hear from Pat in just a moment.

And then of course I was there.

And then you'll see that we talked about AT reuse.

And then we talked about the roles of disaster preparedness

for individuals with disabilities and organizations. And

that was a very helpful session.

And then in the afternoon -- I wanted to point this

out. We did this in both Atlanta in the Region IV and in

Pennsylvania in the Region III conference where we had a

time set aside for disaster sharing of experiences.

So in Atlanta we looked very specifically at

tornadoes. And we had a whole panel that came up and spoke

about their experiences with tornadoes and what are the

lessons that were learned. Same thing about hurricanes:

lessons learned; what are some things that we could all

learn from that.

And other disasters also. And we looked at what

are some of the other emergencies that we need to consider,

and how can we assist.

And this part of the agenda is actually very

interesting because there's a lot that you learn during

this point of sharing. And all of it was pretty much

focused on assistive technology, the role of assistive

technology, and also the role of assistive technology

reuse.

And I found this part really fascinating.

Especially when we were up in Pennsylvania, as many of you

know, there was an earthquake recently in Region III. And

a lot of people -- you know, it scared a lot of people.

And it was interesting hearing these experiences

and what people really experienced firsthand just a few

weeks before we met.

And then there were also some folks that were able

to share what really happened -- they were affected by

9/11, directly affected by 9/11; and how they were able to,

you know, reuse assistive technology to help them in very

specific circumstances through that experience.

And so once again, that sharing is very important.

So if you're planning to have a conference like this, I

would encourage that piece be included.

And thankfully we were able to have Marcie Roth,

the director of the Office of Disability Integration and

Coordination for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security,

Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, come and talk

with us.

She came to the Atlanta summit. And it was very

interesting because at the Atlanta summit we were all there

together, and there were some tornadoes that ripped through

some of the states that were actually at our summit.

And so Marcie did her presentation and immediately

went into emergency-management mode right before and right

after that presentation. And we were thrilled that she was

able to be there, and we were able to get great information

from her.

I was thrilled that she also was able to come to

the Region III conference. And she said that she has seen

that there has already been some amazing collaborations and

positive outcomes from our Region IV summit that she felt

like it was definitely worth her time and energy to be

there and be a part of this.

And she's already said, "If y'all plan another one,

I definitely want to be involved." And so it was great to

have that type of support.

She spoke primarily about planning for the whole

community, and what does that mean. Looking at accessible

cots and looking at sheltering, looking at different

resources, looking at even apps, things that we need to

consider, tools that we need to have, and assistive

technology use and the role of that.

And then our next day we had really a great small

group -- this is where we get everybody working, where

folks are using personal experiences and identifying needs

and opportunities, issues and potential partnerships in

very specific areas of preparation, response, recovery and

mitigation.

And it really is helpful because it informs some of

the work that the states do later in the morning and also

throughout the day when they're seeing what are some of the

potential barriers that we need to consider; what are some

things that folks need to think about; what are some

outside-of-the-box solutions that maybe were used in one

county or one district and that can be transferred over to

another state or to another county.

So exciting to see that collaboration and creative

thinking that goes on during that time. And that's a very

useful part of this whole summit.

And then we looked at opportunities and issues in

emergency management and reuse, you know, looking at what

are the phases and what are some things that we want to

consider.

And we were lucky that we had Jamie Karam with us

from LATAN, the Louisiana Assistive Technology Network.

And she's the program director there and did an outstanding

presentation that you can find on our website.

In the area where it says "Region FEMA III," you

can find her presentation where she's talking specifically

about Memorandums of Understanding; what are some compacts;

what are some agreements that you can have with

occupational therapists and physical therapists and other

folks that can help you that are professionals and that are

speech therapists; and how it's important to plan these and

have these Memorandums of Understanding ahead of time.

And I'm going to show you in just a few minutes

some of those resources.

So all that information informs the state planning

that takes place at this conference, at this summit.

We were also really glad to see Pat talking about,

you know, is your agency really ready to help, and kind of

walking people through maybe a decision activity and

figuring out: Well, are we really ready? Are we prepared

as an agency to help another agency? Are we prepared as an

agency to help individuals?

And that was a very helpful one. So you'll hear

more about that in just a moment.

So the state plans. We actually have people start

working on these at the summit. And we want to make sure

that people are walking away with some really good

networking experience but also something in hand and a plan

that they can start working towards and really start coming

up with some great solutions and get the conversation

really growing and rolling. And then we share that plan.

So it's a very simple agenda in some ways, but it's

a very compact, and it's a very purposeful agenda. And I'm

excited to say that it's actually produced some really

positive effects.

As I said, we're starting to see that states are

able to reach out more, and they're able to get assistive

technology and reuse assistive technology much more quickly

to individuals in emergencies as a result of this summit.

And I am thrilled to see that.

We're also finding that people are having

conversations that they wouldn't have had unless they were

sitting together exchanging those business cards,

exchanging those ideas.

The Region III summit, I was so excited about this,

that Amy and her team got so creative about how to fund

this. And so we were thrilled that there was a grant that

the Projects of National Significance, Emergency

Preparedness Special Initiative was awarded to the Center

for Disability Studies at the University of Delaware.

And they were able to jump on board and really help

with providing some funds and resources and really a good

partner in the planning for this whole summit.

And then also the Institute on Disabilities at

Temple University, Pennsylvania's Initiative on Assistive

Technology, was able to provide support and funding. And

we were thrilled about that.

And then we were especially excited about the

Mid-Atlantic ADA Center jumping in and really being a part,

a real partner in this and a real funder, somebody who came

in and really did want to support this whole effort.

So once again, Amy, great job in being creative and

thinking outside the box and getting people to really

participate and also put their money on the table to make

sure that people could get there.

This is a document that you can find on our

website. We have it actually located in several places in

our knowledge base and also on both of the Region III and

Region IV summit pages.

It's the Guideline for State Plans for AT Reuse in

Emergencies. And it's really a first step at pulling

together what it is you need to think about to incorporate

safe and effective and appropriate reuse of AT as solutions

for folks with disabilities and folks with functional

needs.

One of the things that we heard about on the

evaluations -- people actually said this is -- is that they

had a lot of ah-ha moments at these regional summits.

And one of those ah-ha moments was that a lot of

times people are not considered to have a disability

because their assistive technology is supporting them.

But you take the assistive technology away, and

then, oh, my goodness, this person needs a lot of support.

And all of a sudden they have a lot of barriers, and they

become a person, very much a person with functional-need

issues and with a disability.

And so when we were thinking about that and

realizing that over 50 percent of our population are folks

that take medication, are folks that -- a lot of folks have

a lot of support staff and a lot of support team around

them.

And you take the medication away, you take the

assistive technology solutions away, you take that support

system away, and then we've got a huge, huge thing to

consider when it comes to making sure that our folks are

safe and that our folks are really going to be okay in

emergencies.

And so thinking -- just like Marcie Roth has said,

thinking about how do we look at it from the whole

community aspect; how can we be inclusive and incorporate

universal design in our whole planning.

And I love that she says, rather than layering the

services for disabilities on top of any emergency planning,

that we've got to bake it in.

And I think that's a great philosophy when it comes

to developing these state plans. And it's great to see

that.

So you'll see here that we've given you an outline

with questions that can be helpful to think about. And so

preparation is the first piece that we would want you to

think about.

And then we kind of guide you through this process

of, well, looking at folks with disabilities and functional

needs and what are some of the scenarios you need to think

about in your region.

I know Montana needs to think about something

different than Florida needs to think about. Or Alabama

needs to think about something that's different than

Alaska. Puerto Rico has different things to think about

than Texas.

So what are these different emergencies that affect

us? What has Utah been affected by that maybe Washington,

D.C. has not?

So really looking at what specifically in your

state do you need to consider, and looking at and doing an

analysis of the population and seeing where is the

concentration of folks.

The other thing that people don't really think

about is your response to emergency could change depending

on the time of day.

For example, there are schools that are

specifically designed for people with specific

disabilities. If an emergency happens, and it affects you

during the day, and you have typically 500 people that are

deaf all of a sudden in your county because they all go to

the school for the deaf, then -- and they wouldn't

typically be there at night, then you need to plan for

that, and you need to think about that.

And so these are some of the things that we would

want you to think about, examining likely scenarios. And

so it's a guided process, looking at all of those things.

And then these are just more questions. Looking at

the involvement of AT professionals; the MOUs, like I was

just discussing; looking at communication and training.

And then you'll see that you would -- we talk about

how do you formalize some of those relationships? And also

where do you get some of the assistive technology and the

resources? And when do you need to have those

conversations?

You don't want to have that conversation as the

emergency is happening. You want to prepare. You want to

have those conversations before.

And then looking at response. What's your staffing

look like? What do you need to consider? Do you have

backup power? And do your shelters have backup power? And

how do you assess the needs of folks? And just considering

all of that, the access to technology and reuse.

And then also looking at recovery. That's the

third thing we'd want you to think about. And how do you

recover AT that's no longer needed? And we walk you

through some questions and things to think about that,

including: How do you track the inventory? How do you

track the data? How do you know that what you did was

actually helpful?

And that leads naturally into mitigation and having

an after-action review, which is something I've learned

quite a bit about.

And we've actually seen some of these after-action

reviews that have happened recently after our summit

actually in Region IV. And we've seen where some of the

gaps are that we need to consider, and we actually saw that

assistive technology reuse popped up several times as

something that would have been helpful.

And so how can we change that? How can we change

our preparation? And how can that inform our whole

process?

So very exciting to see all of that happen and be

pulled together.

As I said, the summits were incredibly successful.

We're still hearing positive effects. People are still

thinking about these summits. We had a couple of folks

that actually said that it was the most important thing,

the most important meeting, the best meeting that they've

been to in a year or in several years.

And that was great feedback to hear that because,

as we're tracking trends, we're seeing that this is

something that we need to consider and look at in an even

more serious way.

And especially as we, as an AT reuse community, get

more connected and more organized, we find that we'll be

able to respond and really help more folks, so I'm excited

about that.

This is our summit evaluation for our April summit

in Region IV. And you can see that most people strongly

agreed with the content and the presenters and the general

information and agreed that it was indeed helpful.

And I also have the evaluation up here for the

September conference, the one that took place in Region III

in Philadelphia. And we were thrilled to see that people

said "strongly agree" on many of these.

And we definitely -- as I said when we started out

this webinar, that we listen to people's feedback, and we

definitely try to change and grow from that. And so I was

thrilled to see the positive results here.

And I know I'm actually kind of hard to give -- I

don't actually always give "strongly agree." Often I

"agree." And often I'm "neutral." So it's kind of nice to

see that so many people felt positively about the work that

we were doing.

So as I said, I'm very excited that Pat is with us

today. We're lucky to have her on board. And so I am

going to turn this over to Pat. I'm wondering if anybody

has a question for me as I do that.

So I'm going to release the mic, and I'm going to

pull up your presentation, Pat.

PAT HEINEMAN: Hi. This is Pat Heineman. And I'm

joined with Carl Cameron. He just walked in, and great

timing, Carl.

Thanks, Carolyn, for the introduction. I wanted to

reenforce one thing that you said at the end of your

presentation, which was that you are still getting positive

feedback from participants that attended the Region III

summit.

And so that tells me that a major goal was met, and

that an awareness level and an understanding and a

knowledge base was increased among the participants,

stressing the need to integrate the partners of AT

disability and emergency management together so that all of

us can think bigger when we're trying to fill in the gaps

that exist after disasters regarding AT reuse.

I'm excited to be part of this webinar. And we are

here really because of the Region IV summit. One of the

areas on the evaluation was that people that attended that

summit felt they needed more information about individual

preparedness and also about getting their organizations

ready for disasters, in particular, in this case, AT reuse.

So with that said, I want to share a little bit

with you about the Inclusion Research Institute/Inclusive

Preparedness Center.

We are joined together really. Inclusive Research

Institute first came around in 1986 with the Inclusive

Preparedness Center joining as a leg of that in 1998.

Basically I would say that, if you're listening

to -- if you look at Inclusive Research Institute, what is

it that you do in the Inclusive Preparedness Center?

We provide planning, guidance and training

resources to assist local emergency-planning organizations,

both public and nonpublic, also government agencies, in

planning for individuals who need special accommodations

around disasters.

As far as IPC, we focus mainly on emergency

preparedness, which includes planning, training, and

development of planning tools or curriculum that advocates

for vulnerable populations, especially those with

disabilities with access and functional needs.

So we're talking about individuals also that are

elderly. It can include children, people with low income,

low English proficient populations, single parents. Again

we prepare our tools to advocate for people that need extra

support around access and functional needs.

I see the first slide really is a graphic that

tries to show the viewer how our energy works together in

our outreach efforts.

The philosophy is, when you think about

preparedness, I think it's a challenge for many people to

plan for people who are vulnerable or have special needs.

Over the years of working in this area, Inclusive

Preparedness Center has identified very successful

approaches, one in particular, and that is working with

organizations.

Because organizations, when they are following

their true mission, they are in place to serve the people

that they're intended to serve. So we have found that,

instead of just handing out pieces of information or

knowledge-based content, we choose to work with

organizations and train them on how they could integrate

preparedness into the services that they provide.

And we work, again, with emergency management,

public health departments. And in particular we designed a

couple of unique tools around the AT reuse summit, and it

worked beautifully, as you had mentioned in your

introduction.

Next slide, please.

One of the training tools that we used at the

summit was called the Disaster Readiness Planner. And the

guide that you see on the screen accompanies the planner.

They're two separate guides.

And the next slide, please, I think will tell us a

little bit more.

The guide is a three-page,

eight-and-a-half-by-eleven manual that provides information

for the planner who may be working with a client that they

serve within their organization.

I see that this slide up here is actually looking

at the planner that I'm talking about. It's very easy to

read. You can see that the graphics are -- any person that

you're working with would be able to clearly use this

planner.

I don't want to call it chutes and ladders, but in

looking at it, you can see that there's a path that one

follows when they're working with a partner in planning.

This particular planner is intended to help

families be prepared. It's intended to help organizations

get ready by working with the individuals that they serve,

the clients that they serve.

You actually take a step, one step at a time, as

you meet with your training partner. So, for example, if

you're an organization serving individuals with

disabilities, and you may be meeting them once a month or

once every two weeks, include the planner in your dialogue,

in your meeting time.

Planning doesn't happen overnight, and it doesn't

happen with individuals alone. Planning takes place

because people work with one another. And that's the

intent of this planner.

The very first column on the left identifies what

disasters may be applicable to that individual in his or

her state in which they live. And so you actually sit down

one on one, and you talk about that.

You ask, "What disasters are you concerned about?

If you had a disaster tomorrow, how would that impact you

and your AT needs?" That might be one question you would

ask. "Do you have a backup supply?" Or, "Do you have a

backup vendor for that particular AT concern?

And so that conversation in itself may be one

planning session for ten minutes or a half an hour. And

when you meet that person again, you may pick up on that.

And they would come back to the planning session with you

and perhaps have a different concern or an additional

concern.

They may even bring a family member with them to

say, "You know, I need help in planning, and I have a

family member who's willing to take part in these

discussions. Do you mind?"

And of course, no, we don't mind. We want that.

Following the arrows, let the conversation flow,

and let the person plan with you. We're not asking you,

the planner with the coplanner, to have all the answers.

Let the person who you're working with in the

organization or the family -- let them come up with the

answers. So give them time to think out loud with you.

Identifying who can help. Are there other

neighbors who might be able to be an assistance to that

individual during a disaster?

If they're in a wheelchair, do they have a backup

chair to help evacuate that person or themselves? Would

you be able to help your neighbor evacuate using another

chair? Those are the conversations that are going to take

time to really explore. If not, would you be able together

to get one?

What kinds of organizations or groups are local

that would be able to support that individual being ready

for disasters?

So again, moving through the panel that you see on

your screen, they're talking points. They're pictures.

They're meant to just inspire conversation between two or

more people.

How do they get information? What would you use as

a backup if your computer was down or you're not able to

access the computer? How do you stay in touch? Do you

have more than one way to connect with people after a

disaster?

So the path keeps going, the arrow, and then going

to the next line. What would you need -- asking your

partner, "What do you need to shelter at home?"

Ideally someone using AT devices and supports would

probably not want to be separated from them. So talking

about what do they do to be able to stay in their home

during a disaster is critical.

What will they need besides the obvious food and

water? For some people, that might not be so obvious,

because they're not able to get it. They need help getting

that even.

Labeling what's in a first aid kit for someone who

is low vision or blind and has assistive technology for

that. Maybe they need fluorescent tape to be put on the

first aid kit supplies, or maybe something needs to be

documented in braille.

So having these conversations before disasters is

prudent and critical. And these tools support those

conversations.

If you had to evacuate -- if the individual had to

evacuate, how would they get there? What do you need to

evacuate? The person who's helping the individual with AT

devices or supports, would they be able to evacuate the

individual with the device?

Because the two go together. The two need to go

together. And, at best, working that out, working out the

plan for that, is critical.

To bring someone to a shelter who is relying on an

AT device and not have it sets up a whole other parameter

of concerns, worries, even risks to health. So those

conversations are important to have.

Moving to talking about how the individual would

leave. I think there are many individuals -- as we talked

about at the summit, we know that we are on our own for

72 hours to up to a week. 911 may not be there to support

us or to support anyone.

So connecting the dots before disasters for the

individual is very important. And bringing partners in

with that process, which is what we highlighted at the

summit. How do you do that? How easy is it done? What

are the challenges in doing it? And taking time as an

individual with your partner or your family is necessary.

Where do you go when you leave? Do you have a

plan? Am I going to go -- would I go to my friend's?

Would you go to a hotel? Are you ready to go to a public

shelter? Are you prepared to go to a public shelter and

what that shelter's responsibility would be for you? Take

time to bring these questions up.

Our guide that goes with this disaster planner --

it's called the Disaster Readiness Planning Guide --

provides a lot of talking points for the coplanner so that

they can work together.

Equally important, though, is the very last row:

What to do when you return home.

Especially for someone who may have had an AT

device -- a separation from that device or if something

happened to the device in transport.

What's your backup plan? How do you re-establish

connections with the AT vendors that you had before the

disaster? What are the restock options?

So again, these critical areas that we addressed at

the summit not only in partners, but we sampled that way,

and then we moved into state discussion and planning.

I think, Carolyn, the next slide, please.

And I've pretty much -- this is the readiness

guide, which is the second planning tool that accompanies

the planner that you just saw.

This guide has a lot more text, not quite as many

visual pictures. But it goes equally with the planner so

that, if, for example, you chose to work with a family

member or you chose to work with one of the clients that

your organization served, you would read the guide to get

the background information on how to use the planner with

the individual you're planning with. So together you're

coplanners.

And this becomes part of somebody's chart. It

becomes part of somebody's file. In a family it's in a

Ziploc plastic bag, and it's put in a very safe place that

everyone knows where it is. And periodic, regular

discussions are held around this readiness.

Next slide, please.

This tool was what IPC put together as an insert to

the planner that you just saw. And again, it's the same

pictures. It's the same subtitles, like "Disasters," "My

concerns," et cetera. Only the questions are applicable to

AT users and AT reuse.

So you would be able to access that on our website,

if you would like, www.inclusivepreparedness.org. And

certainly, if that would help in your planning, we want to

share it.

Next slide, please.

Another avenue that -- or another area that came up

after the Region IV summit was what we just talked about,

individual preparedness, but, How do I -- As an

organization, how do I get my staff ready for disasters?

What am I going to need to do so that, if my organization

is called to help and assist with AT reuse or AT support,

where do I go?

What have I done in order to even assess where I am

to see the resources that I know I have, identify my

strengths and my gaps and then have a plan that I know

every staff member is able to offer assistance in some

capacity?

Next slide, please.

So with that said, IPC developed a planning tool,

which you also can access on our website. And I'll repeat

the website at the end.

This tool is a smaller version of our Disaster

Readiness Planner for organizations. This simply focuses

specifically on AT reuse.

So let's -- can you go ahead and move on to the

next slide, please.

This is really a working model of how we see

organizations getting ready for supporting disasters. And

we applied it to AT. It's applicable to any disaster

readiness cycle and planning.

Obviously you need a leadership. You need it from

the top, leaders initiating a readiness cycle. Somebody

volunteered to be the coordinator for this.

As you know, best practices (audio skipped . . .)

organizations take place when leaders and action steps are

(audio skipped . . .) to address.

So this is just a diagram as part of the tool,

identifying and recruiting a working, in this case, AT

reuse. It's one of the steps that we discussed in our

state planning group. (Audio skipped . . .) State, he was

willing to take that initiative of coordinate (audio

skipped . . .) a working group around AT reuse and (audio

skipped . . .) name in order to look at that, what are

(audio skipped . . .) What might be some of the challenges,

what might be some of (audio skipped . . .) in doing that.

So we spent time talking about that and determining

some action steps that we could take as a state, in this

case though, looking at, as an organization, what are the

next action steps your working group would take in order to

address AT reuse.

Moving on to a readiness action. We know that

probably the best way to mitigate disasters, as far as the

impact of them, is to improve upon the readiness level of

an organization.

So part of that would be how connected is your

organization to your local first responders? Are you

involved with partner organizations at all in terms of

routine discussions or an emergency-preparedness planning

group? And how are you working together to address the

area of disaster preparedness?

When we address that in particular, we're looking

at individuals with special needs and AT reuse. So perhaps

developing a survey just for your organization, and take it

from the top or take it from the bottom up.

Assess where you currently are. Look at where your

individual members of the organization are with their

knowledge base on emergency preparedness. Take a stock in

supplies and equipment that you may have around AT use and

reuse.

What about just practicing drills and exercises

and -- you know, tabletop exercises around this topic would

be another suggestion that we have.

And we, as well as I think many people at the

table, certainly have all participated in several tabletops

and practice drills around emergency preparedness.

What we probably have not done is done those kind

of drills around AT use and reuse. So certainly that would

be a priority that this working group would address within

the organization.

We moved to training and education. And actually

the tool that I am encouraging you to download at the end

of the webinar is what we used at the summit. It's really

an assessment tool.

And from that assessment tool, there's a list of

questions around your organization's AT supports; the

devices that you know that you would be able to lend, maybe

not lend; what are your resources and other organization's

currently that you partner with around AT use and reuse.

Starting to look at some of your own -- just your

present state. You're assessing where you are so you know

how you could help someone else.

Around that we'd like to think that from -- as an

outcome of all this, that you probably identify a gap in

your organization as far as your readiness level.

And so perhaps one of the areas of concern that

this working group identifies is that we -- as an

organization, may need more trainings. You may need

another way of looking at what you're currently doing to

enhance your capability of supporting others after

disasters and certainly supporting the staff members in

your own organization.

And finally the evaluation and establishing

routines. One of our mantras here is building preparedness

into the normal routines.

If people look at emergency preparedness as

something extra to do, it stays on the shelf. But if you

take it piece by piece, step by step, and build it into

routines that you currently practice in your organization,

it becomes an integral component that really, you know,

everyone has knowledge about, and it becomes a routine way

of thinking. It becomes part of a culture, actually, of

the organization.

Next slide, please.

This is a sample of a page on the assessment. And

what I'd like to encourage you, again, is that you download

the assessment tool online and take it to perhaps the next

staff meeting.

Or take it to -- if you have time to plan a

brown-bag lunch in your organization around looking at

disaster-readiness planning, and in particular AT reuse.

So the assessment tool identifies an outcome, gives

a check-off category for whether you are currently doing it

or you have completed that task or it's not applicable to

you in your organization.

And the third column really is about action steps.

What action steps can your working committee now take to

address that particular outcome?

Next slide, please.

The initial planning steps and organizing for a

disaster really, on our website you can take a look at some

of our other planning tools around individual and

organizational planning.

Again, we like to think that it's a model that

fosters routines and readiness. Just like you get up in

the morning and you brush your teeth, you get dressed, you

go to work.

How do you as an individual, how do you as a family

member, how does your organization function around

readiness on a routine basis?

Next slide, please.

The Inclusive Preparedness Center, or IPC, as I

mentioned throughout this dialogue or conversation with

you, offers trainings; we do research around the area of

individuals with disabilities and their supports; technical

assistance we provide to states and local and national

organizations; and we develop and plan for templates around

individual requests related to disaster readiness planning.

Our website is www.inclusivepreparedness.org. My

name again is Pat. And if there would be anyone who would

ever need any additional information from today's

presentation, please feel free to contact me and --

Do we have that out, Carolyn, for everyone, our

contact information? I'll give it:

pheineman@inclusionresearch.org.

Thank you so much.

CAROLYN PHILLIPS: Excellent job. Thank you so

much, Pat.

And I wanted to say I saw several of you trying to

adjust your speakers and all of that. And I hope you were

able to hear the great information that Pat had. I was

trying to do some adjustments on my end to see if that

would help at all.

So anyway, thank you so much. I've been very

excited about our collaboration and excited about the tools

that you have produced.

As you can see, there are some really great tools.

We have some of them at the Pass It On Center. So if you

would like to borrow some of those or get some of those

from us, you sure can.

And definitely get in touch with Pat and Carl.

They are great partners.

So thanks again. And I am looking forward to

working with y'all even more in the future.

I do love the "chutes and ladders" approach. I

showed it to my daughter, who many of you know she has some

communication-related disabilities. And it was so

intuitive to her. She's nine. And she was able to

navigate through it. And I was like, ah, this is such a

great tool.

So thank you very much.

I was just going to show -- and if y'all have any

questions, please feel free to put it in the public-chat

area. I just wanted to make sure and share a few more

resources as we wrap up our session today.

We have been so lucky and so thankful to have so

many of you share your resources with us. And our

knowledge base continues to grow.

This really has been the baby of Trish Redmon, who

has been an outstanding member of the Pass It On Center

team in pulling all of this together and putting it in a

way that makes sense, working with Sharon Meek and her

staff along with Liz and all of us with the Pass It On

Center.

So I wanted to show you this screen shot. This is

the knowledge base. Go to the knowledge base. All of the

information that I have shared and links that I will be

talking about are there. So you can get all this

information. There are direct links to the

emergency-preparedness area.

And then I was just showing how actually the last

slide was what it used to look like as far as just how many

were available, and then it's just grown significantly.

We're seeing -- we have even more information, and it's

continuing to grow weekly, thanks to Trish being so

proactive and putting all that information in.

And I'm not sure if she's with us today. But if

you want more information about the knowledge base or have

specific questions about it, you can get in touch with

trish@passitoncenter.org.

And I was just showing you how it goes from some

very general information to very specific information and

where you can actually get documents.

This slide that I have up right now is just a

screen shot of the Memorandums of Agreement in Emergency

Management. And you can actually get the Memorandum of

Agreement terms and conditions checklist that Jamie Karam

put together with LATAN.

And then you can also see the Memorandum of

Agreement -- actually just a basic one, just an example.

And you can get information as to what exactly is a

Memorandum of Understanding versus a Memorandum of

Agreement. And you can get the major sections of

agreement. You can understand all you ever wanted to know

about those.

We also have information about different apps.

We're seeing that more and more apps are popping up for

emergencies. This is called "ICE." And I shared this at

the summit in the Region III summit. I didn't share this

at the Region IV summit.

But we're finding that this is helpful information

that people do want to know more information about. So not

just about reused technology but also what are some of the

tools that could help in emergencies with some of the

emerging technologies that are happening: the tablet

computers and iPads and Galaxys and Zooms.

So this is Speak it! It costs $2. It's an app for

communication. You know, it's pretty simple.

But this is a more complex one that continues to

evolve. It's $190, basically, and it's Proloquo2Go For

Emergencies.

And so we have a lot of this information in our

database -- I mean in our knowledge base. And also you can

find it obviously in this presentation. And you can

contact us directly.

The Tools For Life team -- and this has actually

been a project that Martha Rust has been the lead on,

working with Sharon Meek's team, to develop our favorite

apps database.

And so you can go to the Tools For Life, our AT act

program, and right there on the home page in the upper

right-hand corner you can click the link there, and you can

get all kinds of access to apps. But we do have a specific

area for apps for emergencies. And so here are just some

that you can use.

This is NAVIGON, which is pretty cool because it's

realistic displays, which is different than other displays

for navigation. And I, as a person with learning

disabilities, have really appreciated that.

And then there's also a Red Cross app that's out

called Shelter View where you can see -- it's updated every

30 minutes, and you can see what's the capacity of the

shelters that are around you; what's the current

population; what's the shelter address; what's the

location.

And one of the things we're encouraging the Red

Cross to do is put in there information about functional

needs and do they have accessible cots and all of those as

far as sheltering, are they meeting the needs of folks.

And I think that's super helpful.

And then this is Emergency Aid. It's yet another

app of what to do in order to help somebody in an

emergency. It gets you thinking about that detailed

medical profile. It helps you think about, well, what do I

need to have when it comes to my own contacts.

And I think the more that we can become

individually prepared, then that grows to our families, and

it grows to our communities, and it continues to grow.

I know that my life has changed, and I'm much more

prepared today than I ever was before. I always keep

medications with me for five days that I am dependent upon.

I use some of these apps. And I encourage all of you to

become more prepared.

There's also some very cool technologies that are

being developed. And this is solar energy-related

technologies to keep technology moving along. And so --

which is great whenever it might be dependent upon power.

So whether it's an iPad, a smart phone, an

augmentative communication device, a power wheelchair, a

power lift, then we're looking towards trying to get some

of those powered by solar panels just in case of an

emergency, which is great.

And I did see, Liz, I think you said, "Thanks to

Alan."

Absolutely thanks to Alan, who works with REACH.

And I don't know if Alan's on here. But we are very

thankful for his great work. And he is on here.

So if anybody needs help developing a database, I

encourage you to get in touch with Alan and Sharon Meek and

their team, because outstanding job in helping us develop

all of this.

And thank you for posting the link to the apps --

our favorite apps database.

And we are also, as we said, trying to develop that

network. We encourage you to continue to load information

and register, if you will, your reuse program into our

database where you can go to find reuse locations.

See what organizations are in your state or in your

region. For example, if you go to Virginia, you can click

on that state, and you can see that there are 13 reuse

programs in Virginia.

And so we encourage you to go there and help us

grow this. Right now we have 205 profiles in there.

And, Liz Persaud, thank you for keeping that

updated and reaching out to folks.

So we also want to remind you that we do have this

wonderful tool. We've had 122 folks that have taken

advantage of this tool. And it's the Indicators of Quality

for AT Reuse. It's IQATR.

Lindsey Bean and Trish Redmon and Liz Persaud and a

whole group of other folks from around the country helped

us pull this together. But our Pass It On Center staff did

a great job pulling this tool together.

And in there we do have some questions, actually,

about emergency response and is your agency prepared.

And, Pat, I'm going to be looking to you to help us

refine that even more, if you don't mind, because I think

that's a very important conversation to have.

I also want to remind you that we do have videos

that are available that are -- we have a YouTube station

that Liz Persaud has pulled together with a bunch of folks.

And this is very important because, during an

emergency, you want to make sure that you actually do know

how to clean your equipment.

So we wanted to make sure that you have visuals,

that it's not dependent upon a printer or text or somebody

being able to read text but something that you can actually

see, hear, and watch exactly how you do clean equipment so

that everyone can be a part of the response team during an

emergency.

Also want to remind you that we have a blog. And

so feel free to get on there and post. If you have

anything that you want to post, you sure can.

And we also want to invite you to participate and

friend us, if you will, on Facebook. We've got over 200 --

I think it's almost 250 folks that have friended us on

Facebook.

And this is one of the tools we're using to

communicate with people about, when there's an emergency,

what we're doing.

We are finding that a lot of people contact us as

soon as there is an emergency or a natural disaster. And

so we're using this as one of the tools to get information

out there.

And so Liz is actually our web -- our Facebook

master. I don't know what we would call that. What do we

call that?

Think of a term, Liz. But you're the one who is in

charge of that, and we appreciate that.

But our ultimate vision, really and truly, is that

we can erase these state lines and really develop a system

that is fluid and that is strong that we can reach across

and help people, our friends and neighbors in Alaska,

Hawaii, in every state.

That it should not be dependent upon just if you're

in the East Coast and the South, and you're really lucky if

you need reused equipment; or if you happen to be in Idaho,

then you're really lucky; or Utah, you're going to be

really lucky.

We want to get these pockets erased, if you will,

and really develop a strong reuse network across so that

everyone can benefit from groups like Paraquad and Project

MEND and CREATE, no matter what state you're in, whether

you're in Mobile, or whether you're in Anchorage, Alaska.

So we really want to help people grow your skills

and our skills. And we have found that this regional

summit seems to be the way to do it when it comes to

looking at emergencies and getting our AT reuse into those

emergency plans.

We are also encouraging folks to get to know your

FEMA grant representatives. Make sure that you know who

those grant coordinators are.

I would love to see some of y'all be able to get

state funds and FEMA funds and to support your efforts when

it comes to reuse.

And if you are doing that, let us know that you're

doing that. And if there's something that we can do at the

Pass It On Center to help you with that, let us know.

If you do want to host one of these conferences or

summit or symposium focused on AT reuse and emergencies,

let us know. We would welcome the opportunity to work with

you.

As I said, the stronger that we are individually as

states, the stronger we are nationally, and I think that's

great.

I've posted some questions here of "How can we work

closer together?" If you have some ideas, let us know.

If you have some ideas of how you'd like us to

communicate, too, during emergencies, if Facebook is a good

way, let us know. If using our website is a good way, let

us know.

We've done various -- we've had various ways of

doing this. And we're still trying to figure out what

actually does work best.

So I'd encourage you to donate your plan. Those of

you who are developing your plans, for an example, in our

knowledge base, you can get in touch with Trish and do

that, or you can just send it to us. That would be great.

Also write about the planning process. Share your

emergency experiences. And discuss issues with us in our

emergency-management blog.

We really are here to help you. And I say it all

the time, but I absolutely love my job. And the big reason

why I love my job is because I get to work with y'all and

help people really develop tools that can help individuals

with disabilities. And that's what I love.

So if any of you have questions, please let us

know. Feel free to ask them.

And I'm going to turn the mic over to Liz, because,

Liz, I'm wondering if there's a question up here that I

can't read or have not seen, because it looks like a lot of

people were writing.

So, Liz, take it away.

LIZ PERSAUD: Thank you, Carolyn. Great job to you

and to Pat as well.

It looks like we don't have too many questions. A

lot of the typing was in regards to some of the sound that

went out earlier. But it looks like a lot of those

problems were resolved.

I just want to remind everyone to take a few

moments after the webinar and to fill out our survey.

Again, the survey really helps us to offer credits and to

also offer more webinars and really to listen to what y'all

are wanting. And I posted the link up there.

It looks like Andy -- hello, Andy. Andy says, "Is

Pass It On Center on Twitter?"

And, no, Andy, we aren't on Twitter. As Carolyn

shared, we're on Facebook. We have the YouTube channel.

But we're definitely looking at Twitter.

We have come across a couple of accessibility

issues when it comes to Twitter. Sometimes it can be a

little difficult to navigate. But we're definitely looking

into some more social media. So it's on our radar. But

great suggestion, and we're looking into it.

Does anybody else have any questions for us?

And again, we appreciate your time today jumping on

with us and being with us during this webinar. And I'll

release the mic for anyone.

CAROLYN PHILLIPS: Okay. Thank you so much, Liz.

I appreciate you more than you know on so many levels but

especially the fact that you can read this public chat. So

thank you so much, and especially for developing all these

great tools too.

And, Helen, thank you for saying that that's

helpful information. Definitely that's the key here.

We're hoping that we're able to share information that does

help you.

And so, Pat, I want to thank you for joining us.

Really appreciate it.

And Amy Goldman, who's on here with us, thank you

so much for being the lead with both summits.

And, Trish Redmon, couldn't have done this without

you. The success of both of those summits definitely has

your hands, your fingerprints all over them. So thank you

very much.

And I am, too, looking forward to the next summit.

So y'all let us know if you would like to have a summit in

your area or want to talk about that. Let us know.

Pat, I'll turn this over to you if you have any

last thoughts that you want to share. And we are

definitely on that time where we said we would close at

3:30.

So Pat.

PAT HEINEMAN: Hi, Carolyn.

This is Pat. I sure hope my voice is a little bit

better. But it was great to have such a good number of

participants, some good questions.

And once again, Amy and Carolyn, Trish and

everyone, thank you so much for the work that you've done

in this area. It's much needed, and I look forward to

continued work and supporting everyone that needs -- that

is willing to come on the journey with us. Thanks again.

CAROLYN PHILLIPS: Excellent. All right.

Well, with that being said, thank you so much. All

of you take care. And those of you who are going to be at

ATIA in Chicago, we look forward to seeing you there.

Caroline, looking forward to seeing you there.

And I know I'll definitely be seeing Amy and

Lindsey and other folks.

So thank you, and keep in touch with us. Let us

know how we can help you.

And thanks again, Liz, for all your assistance. I

really appreciate you helping throughout this whole thing.

Y'all take care, and we'll talk to you later.