Laura M. Stough, Ph.D Center on Disability and Development Texas A&M University

First Study: Face-to-face Interviews 39 interviews with individuals with disabilities regarding their: 1) Daily life and supports pre- disaster 2) Disaster narrative 3) Daily life and supports 3 years post- disaster

Second Study: Telephone surveys Telephone surveys with59 individuals that included items based on findings from the interviews demographic items

Third Study: Focus Group Focus group with participants in both Texas (n=6) and Louisiana (n=5) which we followed up on the emergent categories from our qualitative analysis

 Identification of participants with disabilities  Determining disability status  Low incidence of samples  Verbal and cognitive ability to participate in data collection procedures  Physical access issues  Sensory access issues  Consent procedure issues  Proxy and guardianship issues  High mobility in post-disaster living situations  Access to transportation  Access to computers and other technologies

 Potential participants called into a 800 number and were screened by a licensed psychologist or the PI  A brief screener was used to ascertain if they qualified for participation:  23 or older  Living in southern Louisiana at the time of the storm  Displaced for at least three months following the storm  Were currently living in either Texas or Louisiana  Had a disability or diabetes that affected at least one activity of daily living (ADL) before the storm  An appointment was made to conduct a face-to-face interview at a locale and time of convenience for the participant or  An appointment was made to conduct a telephone survey

 After 30 face-to-face interviews were completed, transcribed, and coded, grounded theory analysis was used to identify primary emerging categories. Some of these categories included:  Housing  Employment  Transportation  Recreation  Spiritual Activities  Health & Well-being  Social Relationships  Accessing Services

TexasLouisianaTOTAL Intellectual Disabilities224 Diabetes13 26 Other Disabilities TOTAL312859

No22% Yes78% If yes, how?  I can't get around and do the things I need to do by myself. I can't pay my bills, do my shopping. I have to depend on someone else and it is very upsetting.  …my health has gotten worse.  …still depressed to the point that I can't fully function. Can't do what I used to do. I have flashbacks about water coming in. I can't keep house up and organized.  It seems like if I was up and walking I would have been able to get home sooner. Being in the wheelchair I haven't been able to get back home. A lot of things were not wheel chair accessible for me. Like they were not modifying regular homes so that I could move back. They were only helping people that were on section 8 before Katrina.

 In-depth, post-disaster data obtained directly from individuals with disabilities  Data on the health and well being status of individuals with disabilities during the long-term recovery phase  Quantitative data on pre- versus post-disaster functioning of individuals with disabilities  Description of how disability intersects with the recovery process following disaster

Laura M. Stough, Ph.D Department of Educational Psychology Center on Disability and Development Texas A&M University