Online guide, videos and research will aid schools and communities across the nation

The Michael H. Minger Foundation (www.mingerfoundation.org) has published a series of online videos, a Guide to Teaching Fire Safety to Students with Disabilities and compiled extensive online research to help address the safety of students with hearing, vision or mobility disabilities or learning disorders. This project is in response to the findings of an analysis done by the Foundation that identified a gap on campuses in delivering fire safety information to this demographic.

The four videos feature students with disabilities showing their role in preventing a fire and what to do if one should break out. A fifth video focuses on helping fire safety educators by having the students, along with a fire captain with a son who has Autism, talk about how to best work with people with different disabilities. These short videos are designed to appeal to the “YouTube” generation and are closed-captioned for those that are deaf or hearing impaired.

Accompanying these videos is an online Guide that provides a wealth of information on how to interact with people with disabilities to ensure that the training is delivered as effectively as possible. This guide builds off of invaluable research done by a number of organizations across the country and much of this research has been compiled as part of this project and is available at the Foundation’s web site.

“Our goal is to provide the tools and one-stop resource that fire safety educators can use in teaching students with disabilities the life-saving information they can use, not only for the time they are in school, but for the rest of their lives,” said Minger Foundation President Gail Minger. “Providing fire safety education that is tailored for their needs is so critical to making sure that these students are prepared in the event of an emergency, no matter where they are.”

This project was funded by a grant to the Michael H. Minger Foundation from the Department of Homeland Security/Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Fire Prevention and Safety Grant program.

The Michael H. Minger Foundation was founded after the death of Michael Minger in an arson fire at Murray State University in Kentucky. Michael was a sophomore pursuing degrees in Broadcast Journalism and Music/Vocal Performance. Michael had a non-verbal learning disability, which is on the Autism spectrum and was a contributing factor to his death. The Foundation’s mission is to raise the awareness and standards of campus fire safety for all students with a special focus on students with disabilities.