Breaking Silence: Making Government Communication Accessible
Vance’s Story
When I think about my work, one of the things I’m most proud of is the cultural shift we’ve created within emergency management. For too long, the needs of people with disabilities weren’t fully understood, identified, or integrated into disaster planning.
For the past decade, I’ve had the privilege of leading California’s mission to advance inclusive emergency management. In this role, I’ve partnered with emergency managers, community-based organizations, legislators, and individuals with lived experience to flip the script in meaningful ways. We’ve moved from planning for people with disabilities to planning with them.
Through tireless effort—meeting with emergency managers from every county across the state, in times of calm and in times of crisis—disability integration has come to be recognized as one of the most essential, human aspects of emergency management.
Today, it’s no longer an afterthought; it’s viewed as a core part of the system itself. We conduct whole-community outreach, establish advisory committees, and recognize the critical role of Independent Living Centers as force multipliers in ensuring that everyone can be safe, secure, and healthy before, during, and after disasters.
This cultural shift has taken root in tangible ways. American Sign Language interpreters are now a standard feature at emergency press conferences. Counties are legally required to integrate access and functional needs into their communication, evacuation, and sheltering plans. We’ve developed specialized training for emergency managers, hosted statewide symposiums and webinars, and built systems designed to ensure that no one is left behind when disaster strikes.
The results speak for themselves: stronger emergency plans, deeper partnerships between government and community, and most importantly, fewer lives lost and less suffering among people with disabilities. Emergency management is bigger than any one person, agency, or department. It takes a whole community working together in innovative and dedicated ways.
Vance
That cultural shift has taken hold in California—and is now spreading across the nation. I’m proud to see this work continue, and prouder still to know it’s making a real difference in people’s lives.
