1 in 6 Australians live with a disability. During disasters, people with disability face a higher risk of death, injury and neglect. ¹

In order to address these concerns, NEMA engaged the University of Sydney Centre for Disability Research and Policy to undertake the Disability Inclusive Emergency Management (DIEM) project.  

This $1 million project aims to improve national capability and safety and wellbeing outcomes for people with disability. 

The project has been co-designed with people with disability, representatives across all levels of government, and the emergency, disability, and community sectors. 

The project is supported by an Expert Advisory Panel, comprised of government representatives, people with disability and sector advocates. 

The DIEM Toolkit

The DIEM Toolkit, the project’s key deliverable, is a series of documents that have been developed to support:  

• emergency planners,  
• governments, and  
• disability and community organisations 

to ensure disability inclusion is part of emergency preparedness planning. 

The DIEM Toolkit will also help to address recommendations of the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability.  

The Toolkit is made up of 4 components: 

• Overview: provides an overview of the different elements of the Toolkit and how its components work together to facilitate self-assessment, encourage collaboration, and guide tailored action planning (PDF 1059KB).
• Principles and Practical Action Guide: a framework that supports emergency planners to translate seven principles for disability inclusive emergency management into practical actions for a nationally consistent approach. The guide provides roadmaps and templates have been developed to help plan, implement and monitor progress (PDF 1585KB).
• Organisational Emergency Preparedness Profile: supports community and disability organisations to self-assess and document their current level of emergency preparedness, capabilities, and potential to contribute to disability inclusive emergency management (PDF 2186KB).
• Resource Map: shares good practice resources for disability inclusive emergency management developed in Australia across government, emergency, disability, and community sectors (PDF 1059KB).

An Easy Read version of the DIEM Toolkit can be found here (PDF 1499KB).  

Scoping Study 

The University of Sydney Centre for Disability Research and Policy were engaged in 2022 to conduct a Scoping Study to review the existing disability inclusive emergency management research, resources and capability in Australia The recommendations  of the Scoping Study informed the development of the DIEM Toolkit. The Scoping Study can be viewed below. 

Resources:

• Emergency Management Capabilities for DIDRR Scoping Study (PDF 668KB)
• Emergency Management Capabilities for DIDRR: Evidence Gap Map (PDF 165KB)
• Emergency Management Capabilities for DIDRR: Resource Gap Map (PDF 1059KB)
• Synthesis Report (PDF 2044KB)

¹ The University of Sydney’s Centre for Disability Research and Policy (CDRP) and Asia Pacific Natural Hazards and Disaster Risk Research Group. Disability and Disaster Risk Reduction / Emergency Preparedness 

Scoping Review. [Internet] NSW, Australia; November 2016; The Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability. Overview of responses to the Emergency planning and response Issues paper. [Internet] Australia; February 2021.