Here Comes Summer – Here Come Weather Worries: Emergency Preparation for AAC Users
“What is so rare as a day in June?
Then, if ever, come perfect days.”
So wrote James Russell Lowell in the nineteenth century—but he was a New Englander. In Houston, the only people who call June “perfect” are children celebrating the end of the school year. The word hardly goes with the weather: heat and humidity are climbing with little hope of a break before mid-September. And everywhere you turn, you hear, “this is hurricane season—be prepared.”
You may be reading this not from Houston, but from desert country, the American Heartland, or someplace else where hurricanes are unlikely at best. No matter: every region has its own natural-disaster concerns to disrupt routines and threaten a big, dangerous mess.
Evacuation and AAC
California’s Los Angeles area saw a “big, dangerous mess” in January 2025, when wildfires burned 50,000 acres (and 16,000 buildings) and forced at least 180,000 people to evacuate. Including many people with disabilities.
Evacuation plus disability equals special concerns, and not just about customized wheelchairs or elopement tendencies. A few months after the wildfires, the ASHA Voices podcast interviewed LA-area resident Kari Castellanos, whose evacuation concerns included her nine-year-old son’s AAC device. “As I was packing,” she recalled, “I thought, ‘I should have a low-tech option for him, just in case we don’t have power.’” On short notice, she put together a “low-tech board” from a screenshot of his device. (Watch Facebook video of Kari’s preparations.)
Not everyone can think on their feet like that, so if someone in your household has a communications disability, consider their needs before faced with the possibility of evacuation.
- If your family member already uses a low-tech board (or a notepad and pen), pack extras in their emergency evacuation bag.
- If you don’t already have a low-tech tool, there are printable “communication boards” online. If you’d rather make your own, include an emergency phone number as well as illustrative pictures and/or written words. For users with good literacy skills, add a printed alphabet for a “spell-it-out” tool.
- Keep communications aids in easy reach: don’t bury them at the bottom of a packed bag!
- Even with low-tech backup, keep digital AAC charged. (You can buy solar chargers that don’t need a power outlet. Keep in mind, though, that they do need sunlight—and even on a bright day, they can take several hours to finish the job.)
- If a device uses removable batteries, include spares in your emergency pack.
- As additional backup, have nonverbal family members carry cards (or wear ID bracelets) with brief explanations of their disabilities. (Even better, give everyone a card with their name, an emergency-contact number, and any special concerns. Anybody—however verbal in the everyday—can develop temporary brain fog under stress or become unable to talk if injured.)
- Consider an AAC option specifically designed for emergencies. RescueVoice is one app created with first-responder communications in mind: it includes features for describing pain and other symptoms or medical needs.)
- Whatever assistive technology someone is carrying, make sure they can actually use it, especially in a stressful situation. Whenever you get a new AAC device or communications aid, help the user practice with it until everything flows smoothly.
See Also:
- Hurricane Preparedness: Tips for People Who Use Hearing Aids, Assistive Communication Devices(American Speech-Language-Hearing Association)
- USAAC: The Voice of AAC(assistance if you need AAC devices replaced after a disaster)
