Working Together to Promote the Wellbeing of People with Disabilities

In the United States, one in four (27 percent) adults report having a disability, which amounts to about 61 million Americans. It is suspected many more live with a non-reported disability.??

Public health emergencies, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, highlight the need for collaboration across sectors, organizations and disciplines to address the needs of all people, including people with disabilities. Though people with disabilities were identified as high risk for contracting COVID-19, there was a lack of accessible messaging, websites and materials available to keep people informed as messaging shifted and changed.??

In the CDC Foundation’s new Partnership Guide for Centers for Independent Living and State and Local Health Departments , we outline recommendations to strengthen the partnerships between health departments and disability-led organizations serving people with disabilities, as both types of organizations play a unique and crucial role in the health and safety of those with disabilities.?

Organizations serving people with disabilities, like Centers for Independent Living (CILs), play a major role in public health awareness. According to the national Council on Independent Living, CILs are community-based, cross-disability, consumer-controlled, non-profit organizations designed and operated by people with disabilities to provide various services to empower individuals to achieve independent living. CILs support people with disabilities by providing peer support, information and referral services as well as individual and systems-level advocacy. CILs also provide support to state and local health departments through training and technical assistance regarding disability culture.???

With funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the CDC Foundation launched a project in September 2021 to recruit CILs to help increase COVID-19 vaccination, information and resources for people with disabilities. In partnership with Able South Carolina, Independent Living Research Utilization and the National Association of County and City Officials, the project allowed smaller and often those CILs with less funding to support COVID-19 vaccine-related activities and improve CILs’ visibility and ability to work with health departments.??

The CDC Foundation used the lessons learned, best practices and feedback from health departments to develop the Partnership Guide for Centers for Independent Living and State and Local Health Departments .???

In all, 39 CILs took part in the project. Together, these CILs reached nearly 3.7 million people with disabilities through direct services, education, outreach or other forms of communication like?billboards, videos, PSAs and newsletters. Through the project, 27,000 consumers received vaccine-related services, such as in-home vaccination (3,035 people), vaccination appointments scheduled (2,978) and transportation appointments to vaccine clinics (903).??

In addition, there were 3,677 instances of CILs providing assistance and education to health departments, including disability and accessibility trainings and providing guidance on hosting accessible or barrier-free vaccine clinics. The Partnership Guide also provides an introduction to disability prevalence, disability’s relation to health outcomes and common stereotypes and structural barriers.??

The guide is comprised of two modules detailing the function of CILs and state and local health departments and how each can benefit from working together for the wellbeing of people with disabilities, including:??

1. Developing communication materials and helping make events more accessible?

2. Providing input for needs assessments, message testing and improving programs and services?

3. Co-hosting events such as barrier-free vaccine clinics or emergency preparedness exercises?

4. Participating in advisory committees or coalitions.?

The partnership guide is a helpful tool for health department staff and other public health workers looking for insight on reaching people with disabilities and working with disability-led organizations like CILs. Our hope is more people read and share this information to help communities across the United States better collaborate in promoting inclusive messaging, services and public health response during disasters and emergencies.???

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Read examples from Centers for Independent Living and State and Local Health Departments already in partnership as well as gain resources to create and maintain mutually beneficial partnerships.??

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