This year,  International Day for Disaster Reduction (IDDR) on October 13th will be centered on people with disabilities and their needs and roles within disaster reduction planning efforts.

Persons living with disabilities have unique contributions, often overlooked, to help reduce the risk of disasters. IDDR 2013 intends to switch on and amplify this critical issue of including the needs of persons living with disabilities now and for the post-2015 framework for disaster risk reduction.

•  A disaster resilient planet means everyone must be part of the solution.
• Decisions and policies to reduce disaster risks must reflect the needs of persons living with disabilities
• Investment in disaster risk reduction must provide for the needs of persons living with disabilities

The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction and UN Enable have developed a survey to asses the thoughts and approaches people with disabilities and Deaf people have living with disasters.

The survey is open to people with disabilities as well as care-givers and can be found here on the official IDDR website. The deadline to fill out this survey is September 25, 2013. It is important to have as much feedback as possible!