When the sirens wail in Israel, most of us move instinctively: gathering our children, grabbing our phones, running to safety. But for too many, especially people with disabilities, that flight isn’t just difficult — it’s impossible.

eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross recently shared his story of Yosef, an amputee with no way to reach a shelter in his four-story walk-up. Yosef’s situation is tragically common: an Access Israel report found that 42% of people with disabilities in conflict zones lack access to protected spaces. For many, there are no elevators, no ramps and no reinforced rooms they can reach in time. Even in major cities, shelters are often inaccessible. For the deaf or hard-of-hearing, alerts are not reliable. For others, the path to safety is blocked — sometimes literally.

Courtesy/Beit Issie Shapiro

However, inaccessible shelters are one part of the story. Inclusion isn’t just about mobility. During emergencies, individuals with cognitive disabilities or limited verbal communication face equally life-threatening barriers. How do you seek safety if you don’t understand the instructions? How do you navigate fear and disruption if your routines collapse and your support system is limited?

This is what we must understand: Physical and cognitive accessibility are inextricably linked components of emergency readiness, but too often one is considered without the other. That gap is a failure of imagination and policy.

What we need instead is a national commitment to inclusive emergency planning. We need systems designed from the start to serve the full range of human needs — not as an afterthought but as a core component of resilience.

There are examples of what this could look like.

During this war, a coalition of partners — including Beit Issie Shapiro, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), Israel’s Ministry of Welfare and the country’s Home Front Command — developed a “smart” bracelet to make air-raid alerts accessible. It vibrates when a siren goes off, then again 10 minutes later to indicate it’s safe to leave the shelter. It’s simple, accessible and works without a smartphone — a crucial feature for the elderly, people with sensory or cognitive disabilities or anyone without tech access. 

We also launched emergency support hotlines to train professionals ranging from therapists to municipal staff in how to support people with disabilities during wartime. The hotlines are for anyone working with people with disabilities — in hospitals, care facilities, schools, municipalities or community settings. It connects callers with experts from our team for real-time, practical support tailored to the situations they are facing: needing to calm a child, creating structure in temporary or evacuated settings, managing behavior challenges, supporting caregiver resilience and more. 

These efforts aren’t PR opportunities to “show” support. Rather, they include extremely practical guidance from professionals who work with people with disabilities on a daily basis, with wisdom to address real-life challenges, from physical challenges to mental health. These efforts serve as blueprints for what inclusive emergency infrastructure can look like when all sectors coordinate and when people with disabilities are fully included in the design.

A lot of the solution comes from listening — really listening — to people with disabilities and their families. Inclusion doesn’t mean finding new solutions for them, but rather finding solutions with them. 

Our Young Leadership Group of high schoolers with physical and cognitive disabilities launched a national campaign last year to highlight the lack of accessible bomb shelters. They didn’t wait for permission. They toured sites, documented the barriers and aired their findings on national television. Their activism isn’t just inspiring — it’s instructive. It shows how inclusion empowers leadership, even during a crisis.

Yet policy lags behind.

We still lack systems to identify and support people with disabilities in real time during emergencies. Too many shelters remain inaccessible. Emergency guidelines are not always adapted for cognitive or sensory needs. Special education frameworks, vital lifelines for families, remain closed far too long in wartime. And those who need modifications to our systems are not yet included enough in the conversation of what those modifications should be. 

This is not a niche issue — 1 in 5 Israelis lives with a disability. Inclusion in emergency planning isn’t about charity. It’s about national security and safety for all its citizens.

We call on communities, policymakers, funders and thought leaders: Audit your emergency systems. Invest in inclusive design. Create planning tables that include people with disabilities, not just as a checkbox, but as architects of better solutions.

To our partners in the Jewish world: You have helped build Israel’s hospitals, homes and resilience. Now help ensure that resilience extends to all. Because when we talk about protecting Israel, we must mean all of Israel.

Let this be the war that taught us to listen better. To plan smarter. And to make sure that when the sirens sound, no one is left behind.

Michael Lawrence is the chief advancement officer at Beit Issie Shapiro. He has held leadership positions at the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) and the Jewish Agency for Israel, and serves in advisory and mentorship roles to charities and nonprofit leaders.