Strengthening Emergency Preparedness Through Lived Experience

Over the past year, the Council has continued its commitment to making sure Tennesseans with disabilities are included, heard, and supported in all parts of emergency preparedness. Our work has lifted up the voices of people with lived experience, making sure their needs inform statewide planning and response efforts.

To support this mission, Council staff have participated in regular meetings with both the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA) and the Department of Health. The group has updated protocols and developed strategies for responding to natural disasters. Over the last several years, we have learned from experts in emergency preparedness as we all work toward the same goal: making sure emergency systems help protect the health and safety of all Tennesseans.

One major effort this year included a series of social stories for Tennessee residents who live near a nuclear power plant. These accessible, easy-to-understand stories explain the plant's role in the community. They outline what could happen in the event of a problem and describe how emergency systems respond. By providing clear information ahead of time, these stories help reduce confusion and stress during a possible emergency, especially for people who benefit from structured, predictable explanations.

The Council also partnered with leaders in the Southeast region to connect Council members with an important emergency preparedness exercise: a community reception center drill held in summer 2025. Robert Goff, Emergency Preparedness Director, led this collaboration to make sure healthcare responders could practice meeting the needs of Tennesseans with diverse access and functional needs. The result was a stronger, more inclusive response system that reflects the realities faced by many people with disabilities. This went above and beyond the requirements of the annual exercise.

Pictured here is the Hood family, who helped provide acces-sibility guidance and feedback on the Department of Health Community Reception Center exercise in McMinn County, Tennessee. Alaina (white shirt, center), uses an AAC device to communicate. Staff going through the exercise were able to practice interacting with Tennesseans who use alternative methods of communication and Alaina practiced communicat-ing during an emergency.

Throughout the year, Council staff have also provided informational trainings and supported coordination efforts during real-world emergencies. We were involved in the response to Hurricane Helene by advocating for no-tech language boards to be added in every Department of Health shelter for future deployments. This was an important step toward accessibility for people with communication-related disabilities.

Across all these efforts, our approach has stayed consistent: listen to Tennesseans with disabilities, learn from their experiences, and use their feedback to guide our work. The Council remains firmly committed to strengthening emergency preparedness across the state, making sure every Tennessean is considered, supported, and safe before, during, and after an emergency.

Ashley joined the Council as Assistant to the Executive Director in 2018. She previously worked in the education field, where teaching students with disabilities became a passion for her. In her current role, Ashley supports Council members, leads membership recruitment efforts, oversees meeting planning and coordination, and manages agency and state plan reporting. She is also our staff lead for work related to emergency preparedness.