Designing Emergency Preparedness Resources for Children with Autism

Emergency preparedness is a fast developing field of education driven by the numerous disasters worldwide with more recent notable examples including the terrorist attacks of 9/11 in the US in 2001, the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the London bombings in 2005, the earthquake in China in 2008, the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and more recently the Paris terror attacks in 2015. Whilst there is a growing literature focusing on the psychological implications of such disasters on children, there remains a lack of focus on disability, particularly neurodevelopmental disabilities such as autism. Due to the nature of autism, it is likely that this group will have specific needs during disasters and emergency situations and may find such situations more stressful than their typically developing peers, as such they can be considered a more at risk group in such events. In this article, I consider the need for an intervention for a nearly wholly neglected group in the field of education for emergency preparedness, children with autism, and report on phase one of a project aimed at designing resources for this group.