Emergency Communication AAC Vocabulary

Emergency Preparedness

Effective communication in times of man-made or natural disasters is key to effective emergency preparedness, response, and management. People with disabilities, especially those with significant communication disabilities, are at particular risk because they may not have the vocabulary needed to effectively communicate. Emergency first responders may not know how to communicate with people with complex communication needs.

On this website you will find needed vocabulary for communicating in times of emergency, developed based on the structured input of people who use AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication), and professionals who work as first responders in times of emergencies.

Emergency Communication - Full Vocabulary Set

A
  • Access (ible)
  • Accident
  • Afraid
  • Alarm
  • Alert
  • Allergic/Allergy
  • Ambulance
  • Angry/Anger
  • Ankle
  • Anxious
  • Arm
  • Attendant
B
  • Back
  • Bag
  • Battery/batteries
  • Bed
  • Bed Pan
  • Blanket
  • Bleeding
  • Blood
  • Broke(n)
  • Brother
  • Burn
C
  • Call
  • Can
  • Cane
  • Cash or Money
  • Chemical(s)
  • Choke
  • Clothes or Clothing
  • Cold
  • Communicate (ion)
  • Computer
  • Crime
  • Cut
D
  • Damage
  • Danger
  • Dentures
  • Device
  • Disability(ies)
  • Disaster
  • Do
  • Doctor
  • Down
  • Dress
  • Drink
E
  • Ear
  • Earthquake
  • Electric or Electricity
  • Email
  • Emergency
  • Evacuate
  • Eye
F
  • Face
  • Fall
  • Family
  • Feed(ing)
  • FEMA
  • Finger
  • Fire
  • First aid
  • Flood
  • Food
  • Foot
  • Friends
  • Future
G
  • Generator
  • Get
  • Glasses
  • Go
  • Good
  • Grocery(ies)
H
  • Hand
  • Happy
  • Have
  • Hazard
  • He
  • Head
  • Health
  • Hear
  • Hearing aid
  • Heart
  • Heat
  • Help
  • Her
  • Here
  • Him
  • Hip
  • Hit
  • Home
  • Hospital
  • Hot
  • House
  • How
  • Hungry
  • Hurricane
  • Hurt
I
  • I
  • Ice
  • Ill
  • Incident
  • Infect(ion)
  • Injury/injured
  • Internet
  • Is
K
  • Kidney
  • Knee
L
  • Left
  • Leg
  • Lift
  • Light
  • Liquid
  • Listen
  • Lonely
M
  • Medicine or Medication
  • Memory
  • Mouth
  • Move
  • Mudslide
N
  • Neck
  • Need
  • Neighbor
  • News
  • No
  • Normal
  • Now
  • Number(s)
  • Nurse
O
  • Off
  • Out
  • Over
  • Oxygen
P
  • Pain
  • Panic
  • Pants
  • Paper
  • Past
  • Patient or patience
  • Persistent
  • Person
  • Pet(s)
  • Phone
  • Pill/pills
  • Pillow
  • Plan
  • Police
  • Power
  • Prepare/preparedness/preparations
R
  • Radio
  • Ramp
  • Repeat
  • Rescue
S
  • Sad
  • Safe/Safety
  • Scared
  • School
  • Secure or security
  • See
  • Seizure
  • Shelter/sheltering
  • Shirt
  • Shoe/shoes
  • Shoot/shooting/shot
  • Shower
  • Sick
  • Sit
  • Sleep
  • Smoke
  • Snow
  • Soap
  • Speak
  • Spell
  • Stay
  • Stomach
  • Storm
  • Straw
  • Stress
  • Suspect
  • Swallow
T
  • Table
  • Take
  • Talk
  • Temperature
  • Thunder
  • Time
  • Tissue
  • Toothbrush
  • Tornado
  • Towel
  • TV or television
U
  • Understand
  • Underwear
W
  • Wait
  • Walk
  • Walker
  • Want
  • Weather
  • What
  • Wheelchair
  • When
  • Where
  • Which
  • Who
  • Wind
  • Worried
  • Worst
X

X-ray

Y
  • Yes
  • You