Campaign Case Study  /  2022–2025

Ready to Roll

United Spinal Association  ·  Communications Strategy

Nearly 50% of wheelchair users affected by disasters lose access to medications or assistive devices. Another 85% feel excluded from community disaster preparedness efforts entirely. United Spinal Association had been chipping away at both problems for years — a grant program, an advocacy working group, a resource page. Good work, running in three separate silos with no common story connecting them.

I was Senior Director of Communications when I saw what we actually had. Disasters were intensifying — Maui, Los Angeles, tornado after tornado — and our members were living through them. I knew we could do more than respond. We could find them, reach them, and put their stories in front of the country.

So I built the strategy to do that.

We segmented our newsletter list by region and pushed targeted information to members as disasters unfolded — extending outreach to surrounding states too, because displaced people move. We didn't wait for them to come to us. The advocacy working group had years of preparedness research; I took their draft and shaped it into the Wheelchair Emergency Preparedness Compendium. When the LA wildfires hit in January 2025, we were already running. United Spinal and Airbnb.org announced an accessible housing relief initiative the same week — up to 30 days of lodging for displaced wheelchair users.

That April, I wrote "Helping Wheelchair Users Recover from Disaster, One Grant at a Time" — five members, five disasters, five accounts of what it actually means to start over when your wheelchair is gone.

By the end, Ready to Roll had assisted 100 wheelchair users across multiple disaster events.