Why It Matters

People with disabilities are being approved for federal disaster assistance at a lower rate than survivors without disabilities, according to a new audit of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). GAO's analysis found that 4 percentage points fewer applicants with disabilities were approved for FEMA disaster assistance grants than those without disabilities from 2022 through 2025. The report separately identifies application barriers, including unclear questions and eligibility letters written at a grade 12 reading level, that stakeholders described as obstacles for people with disabilities. FEMA has not solicited feedback from people with disabilities on its overall grant application process, limiting its ability to ensure accessibility, the report found.

The Big Picture

People with disabilities are far more likely than people without disabilities to face hardship due to a major disaster, according to the National Council on Disability. FEMA plays a role in helping state and local governments, nonprofits, and others support survivors after a disaster, and it provides both infrastructure grants to states and financial assistance to survivors. On the direct assistance side, FEMA publishes disaster planning and recovery guidance for people with disabilities and caregivers on its website, and its individual assistance grants can provide financial assistance to replace assistive devices and medically required equipment. FEMA also provides specialized services to help people with disabilities apply for grants, including sign language interpretation via video, and employs staff who investigate complaints of discrimination based on disability.

FEMA has some guidance for state and local partners on incorporating the needs of people with disabilities into disaster planning and response, and it has regional staff who can coordinate with those partners to support this population, which state and local officials described as beneficial. However, that coordination has been inconsistent across regions, and the disability specialist role is not standardized.

FEMA had offered training for its partners on including people with disabilities in disaster operations, but removed that training from its curriculum in 2025 to ensure compliance with various executive orders, according to agency officials. It has now been more than a year since the training was offered, and without it, FEMA's state and local partners risk not being able to effectively assist people with disabilities, the GAO found.

The GAO conducted its review under a provision of the Think Differently About Emergencies Act, which included a mandate for the agency to examine the assistance FEMA provides to help people with disabilities. Researchers analyzed FEMA grant data from 2022 through 2025 and interviewed FEMA officials, disability-focused organizations, and state and local officials in Hawaii, Louisiana, and Kentucky, states that experienced different types of disasters in separate FEMA regions between 2023 and 2025.

The GAO made three recommendations to FEMA, and the agency concurred with all three. All three recommendations are currently open, meaning actions to satisfy their intent have not been taken or are being planned.

The first calls on the FEMA Administrator to re-institute training for state and local partners on addressing the needs of people with disabilities in disasters. The second asks the administrator to document and standardize that the disability specialist role in all regions includes coordinating with relevant state and local partners before disasters occur. The third directs FEMA to solicit and incorporate feedback on its individual assistance application process from people with different types of disabilities, addressing issues such as plain language use and the discontinuation of door-to-door assistance teams.

The Bottom Line

Until FEMA acts, the structural gaps the audit identifies, including inconsistent regional coordination, the absence of partner training, and an application process that has not been tested with disability communities, remain in place.

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