Lithuania is testing its national population evacuation plan as part of the Vyčio Skliautas 2026 exercise. The exercise provides an opportunity to look beyond whether an evacuation plan exists and ask whether it works for everyone, including persons with disabilities. This is a key question for effective, disability-inclusive civil protection.
According to the Lithuanian government: "The exercise is intended to assess how effectively mobilisation management structures can be activated, how information and resources are managed and allocated, and how institutions work together.The exercise is looking at how effectively works in practice, including warning and information, registration, transport, coordination between municipalities, reception of evacuees, alternative routes and communications. The Lithuanian Disability Forum is also participating.
For organisations working on civil protection and disaster preparedness, this is an important reminder: having an evacuation plan is not the same as having an evacuation system that works for everyone.
EDF’s recent research on disability-inclusive emergency preparedness and response in Europe found that disability inclusion remains uneven and fragmented across Europe. The research reviewed around 700 policy and legal documents and gathered evidence from organisations of persons with disabilities and disaster risk management authorities in 29 countries.
The findings point to a number of practical questions that need to be addressed when preparedness plans are developed and tested:
These questions should not be treated as an additional layer of preparedness for a particular group. They are part of testing whether the civil protection system itself is fit for purpose.
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This is particularly relevant to the work of READY Baltics. Across Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, the project is bringing organisations of persons with disabilities and civil protection actors together to strengthen practical cooperation and disability-inclusive preparedness.
Exercises such as Vyčio Skliautas 2026 provide an opportunity to move beyond plans and identify what actually works, where barriers remain and what needs to change before a real emergency occurs.
For civil protection practitioners, involving organisations of persons with disabilities in these exercises is not simply about consultation. It brings practical knowledge of the barriers people may encounter and provides an opportunity to test whether preparedness arrangements work for the whole population.
Preparedness is strongest when it is designed, tested and improved with the people who will depend on it.
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