Deaf and blind emergency response outreach in Louisiana

| 07.03.2007 | 08:08:397868 |

July 3 '07: In East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, members of the local community have partnered with the Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness and the Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Inc. to help deaf and blind residents with emergency preparedness through a training event, the The Advocate reported.

The eight-hour course being taught "with eight deaf and two deaf-blind individuals and 20 emergency responders," was designed by Neil McDevitt, a resident who is deaf. McDevitt told the Advocate he designed to course after the attacks on 9/11 and the Washington DC-area sniper shootings because of what he saw was a lack of information being provided to the deaf and blind community.

"There was no centralized form of training," for first responders to communicate with the deaf and blind community, McDevitt told the Advocate. He also said that in an emergency, "the deaf wan an explanation why they have to evacuate a building."

So far, TDI has trained about 800 people in the U.S. The course given by TDI "was funded through an almost $1.5 million Homeland Security grant to Eastern Kentucky University," the Louisiana paper reported. Those interviewed by The Advocate said they were grateful for the training because it would strengthen community bonds with the responder community.