AIDE by Access Built

Everyone deserves a way to safety.

AIDE helps organizations examine how emergency plans, communications, and spaces may create friction for people under stress, informed by lived experience and behavioral research.

Share your experience

Behind every emergency decision is a person.

People moving through a crowded city street.

Someone who cannot make out an announcement. Someone overwhelmed by noise. Someone searching for a family member. Someone who needs more time, clearer information, or assistance to reach safety.

For neurodivergent people, older adults, people with disabilities, and others, these barriers can be especially consequential. Their experiences can help us understand what emergency planning may overlook.

Access Built is building AIDE to bring that understanding into decisions about spaces, communications, and emergency procedures.

What happens when a plan meets real life?

Emergency plans often assume people will hear an instruction, understand it immediately, and know where to go. In a real emergency, noise, uncertainty, unfamiliar surroundings, and individual needs can change what is possible.

AIDE is being developed to help organizations examine those assumptions and identify where people may encounter barriers.

Could people understand and act on an alert when they are stressed, distracted, or experiencing sensory overload?

Communications

Could an exit route, crowded lobby, unfamiliar corridor, or shelter create challenges that are easy to miss on paper?

Spaces and movement

Do procedures account for people who may need assistance, more time, or help finding someone they depend on?

Operations and support

Human experience. Structured evidence. Better-informed decisions.

AIDE is in development. Access Built is building its research foundation and exploring how human evidence can strengthen emergency decision-making.

Lived experience as expertise

People share knowledge about the friction they encounter, the ways they adapt, and the support that helps them navigate stressful situations.
Evidence with context

We distinguish participant accounts from observations made during walkthroughs and, where available, findings measured in exercises.
Practical decisions

Insights can help organizations examine emergency communications, navigation, assistance, and operating procedures.