The Chief of the Office of Access and Functional Needs in the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, Vance Taylor, recently delivered a PrepTalk with FEMA. In the talk, Taylor shares the personal story of a shelter that failed to take into account the needs of people with access and functional needs and how emergency managers can achieve better integrated planning. He explains the importance of understanding the communities we serve and the need to integrate people with access and functional needs within each phase of planning for communication, sheltering, evacuation, and medical needs. In this, Taylor calls for more fully applying technology, including artificial intelligence and machine learning, to emergency management to save the lives of people with access and functional needs before, during, and after disasters.
Check out Vance Taylor’s PrepTalk below.
