Emergency preparedness is more than gathering supplies and identifying evacuation routes. It means creating plans that work for every person and every brain.
September is National Preparedness Month, a time when families, schools, businesses, public-safety agencies, and communities are encouraged to prepare for disasters and emergencies.
We are reminded to assemble emergency supplies, establish communication plans, learn evacuation routes, monitor weather alerts, and know where to seek shelter. These are all essential parts of preparedness. But a plan is only effective if the people it is intended to protect can understand it, access it, and follow it during a crisis.
For autistic and other neurodivergent people, that may require additional consideration.
Imagine being awakened by a smoke alarm, tornado siren, or emergency alert. Flashing lights fill the room. Multiple people begin speaking at once. Someone you do not know enters your home wearing unfamiliar equipment and begins giving rapid instructions. Your normal routine suddenly disappears, and you are expected to leave a familiar environment without knowing where you are going or when you will return.
For anyone, that experience could be frightening. For someone with sensory, communication, processing, or emotional-regulation differences, it may become completely overwhelming.
That is why neurodiversity must be part of the emergency-preparedness conversation.
Emergencies Can Magnify Existing Challenges
Neurodivergence can affect how a person receives information, processes language, communicates, regulates emotions, experiences sensory input, adapts to change, and responds to unfamiliar people or environments.
There is no single neurodivergent response to an emergency. One autistic person may communicate verbally but lose the ability to speak when overwhelmed. Another may repeat words or questions. Someone with ADHD may have difficulty organizing information or remembering several instructions given at once. A person with Tourette syndrome may experience increased tics during stress. Someone with sensory-processing differences may find alarms, sirens, flashing emergency lights, crowded shelters, physical contact, or unfamiliar clothing unbearable.
A person may cover their ears, pace, rock, freeze, retreat, attempt to hide, repeat phrases, become unable to answer questions, or try to leave the area. These behaviors may be attempts to cope with overwhelming circumstances rather than signs of defiance or resistance.
Not every neurodivergent person requires additional assistance, and no two people will have identical needs. Preparedness begins by understanding the individual rather than making assumptions based on a diagnosis.
Build the Plan Around the Person
A neuroinclusive emergency plan should begin with several basic questions:
How does this person communicate when calm? Does that communication change during stress? Can the person understand verbal instructions, or would written directions, pictures, gestures, or demonstrations work better? What sensory experiences are especially difficult? What helps the person feel safe or regain control? Is there a history of wandering, hiding, or moving toward water, traffic, trains, or another preferred location? Who does the person trust? What information would first responders need during an emergency?
The answers should become part of the household’s emergency plan.
Families may also consider creating a portable emergency-information profile. Depending on the person’s needs, it could include a current photograph, preferred name, emergency contacts, communication abilities, medical information, medications, allergies, sensory triggers, calming strategies, safety concerns, and places the person may attempt to reach.
This information should be updated regularly, protected appropriately, and stored where it can be accessed quickly. When communities offer voluntary emergency-information or public-safety registry programs, families can decide whether participation is appropriate for them.
The worst time to begin explaining a person’s communication and sensory needs is during the most chaotic moment of an emergency.
Create a Neuroinclusive Emergency Kit
Traditional emergency kits commonly include water, food, flashlights, batteries, medications, first-aid supplies, chargers, and copies of important documents. A neuroinclusive kit may need several additional items.
Noise-reducing headphones, sunglasses, a communication board, identification card, visual schedule, familiar comfort item, fidget device, preferred snacks, backup charging equipment, or a tablet containing a communication application may make an unfamiliar environment more manageable.
If the person depends on an electronic communication device, the plan should include a safe method of keeping it charged. If medications or specialized supplies are needed, families should consider how those items will be stored, transported, replaced, and kept current.
These items are not conveniences. For some people, they are tools that make communication, regulation, and safe evacuation possible.
Practice Without Creating Additional Distress
Emergency plans should be practiced, but the practice itself may need to be adapted.
An unexpected drill involving loud alarms, flashing lights, hurried movement, and unfamiliar responders may create the same sensory overload the plan is intended to prevent. When appropriate, the person can be prepared in advance using photographs, visual instructions, social narratives, demonstrations, or gradual exposure to emergency equipment and sounds.
Families might practice walking to the designated meeting place, locating emergency supplies, using a communication card, or getting into the vehicle with the emergency kit. Schools can individualize evacuation and shelter procedures for students who may have difficulty with alarms, crowds, physical transitions, or sudden schedule changes.
Public-safety agencies can also participate in low-pressure community events where neurodivergent people can become familiar with responders, uniforms, patrol vehicles, ambulances, fire apparatus, and emergency equipment before a crisis occurs.
The first interaction with a responder should not have to occur during someone’s worst moment.
Public Safety Must Prepare Before the Call
Neuroinclusive preparedness is not solely the responsibility of families. Police departments, fire departments, emergency medical services, dispatch centers, emergency-management agencies, schools, shelters, hospitals, and community organizations all have a role.
Emergency alerts should use clear, direct language and be available through multiple formats whenever possible. Evacuation and shelter plans should consider communication access, sensory needs, mobility, medical equipment, support persons, service animals, and the possibility that some people may need a quieter space away from crowds and constant activity.
Dispatchers should be trained to gather useful information when a caller reports that someone is autistic or neurodivergent. Helpful questions might include: How does the person communicate? What causes additional distress? What helps them remain calm? Is there a wandering risk? Are there any immediate safety concerns? Is someone present who knows the individual well?
Responders should also understand that behavior during a disaster may look different from behavior during an ordinary encounter. A person who does not answer may still understand what is being said. Someone who moves away may be trying to escape sensory overload. A person who repeatedly asks the same question may be seeking predictability. Someone who resists physical guidance may be reacting to unexpected touch rather than attempting to fight.
Recognizing those possibilities can change the response.
Make Neurodiversity Part of Training and Exercises
Emergency plans cannot simply exist in a binder. They must be tested.
Public-safety agencies should include people with disabilities, autistic and neurodivergent self-advocates, parents, caregivers, educators, service providers, and community organizations in preparedness discussions. Their lived experience can identify barriers that may never occur to the people writing the plan.
Tabletop exercises and full-scale drills should test more than operational command and resource deployment. They should also examine whether emergency messages are understandable, shelters are accessible, responders know how to communicate with people who process information differently, and reunification plans account for individuals who may be unable to provide their names or addresses.
A plan that has never been tested with the people most likely to encounter barriers is not a fully tested plan.
When the Emergency Is Already Happening
There will always be emergencies in which responders must act immediately to protect life. Neurodiversity awareness does not change that responsibility. It helps responders recognize and remove unnecessary barriers when circumstances allow.
One responder should speak whenever possible. Directions should be short, concrete, and delivered one step at a time. Additional processing time should be allowed when safety permits. Responders should explain what they are about to do before touching the person. Unnecessary noise, lights, crowds, and repeated commands can be reduced once immediate hazards are controlled.
A parent, caregiver, teacher, support professional, or other person familiar with the individual may possess information that can quickly improve the response. Sometimes the most valuable question a responder can ask is also one of the simplest:
“What helps this person feel safe?”
The answer may prevent additional confusion, reduce escalation, protect the individual, and improve safety for everyone at the scene.
Preparedness Is a Shared Responsibility
Families cannot prepare alone. First responders cannot prepare alone. Schools, emergency managers, healthcare providers, community organizations, and disability advocates cannot prepare alone.
Effective preparedness requires communication and partnership before an emergency occurs.
Families understand the individual. Schools understand how the person functions in structured environments. Community organizations offer lived experience and specialized knowledge. Dispatchers collect information. Emergency managers build plans. First responders translate those plans into action.
When these groups communicate before the alarm sounds, responders arrive with more information, families have greater confidence, and neurodivergent people are less likely to be misunderstood during moments of crisis.
SCOUT’S LESSON: A Plan Must Work for Every Brain
Emergency preparedness is not only about supplies, equipment, and procedures. It is about people.
It means recognizing that not everyone will understand an emergency message the same way. Not everyone can immediately transition from one environment to another. Not everyone can communicate their name, address, medical needs, or fear during a crisis. Not everyone can tolerate sirens, flashing lights, crowds, unexpected touch, or several people giving instructions at once.
A truly prepared community anticipates those differences before the emergency begins. This September, as we review emergency kits, communication plans, evacuation routes, and community-response procedures, we should ask one additional question:
“Will this plan work for someone whose brain processes the world differently?”
If the answer is uncertain, the plan is not finished. Preparedness builds confidence. Understanding builds trust. Together, they improve response and save lives.
Understanding Saves Lives.
- SCOUT
Spectrum Command’s
Public Safety Ambassador
Preparedness Resources