If someone in your household can’t use stairs safely — a wheelchair user, someone recovering from surgery, an aging parent with limited mobility — the time to figure out how they get up, down, and out during a power outage is before the outage, not during it. Once the power is out, the options that made stairs manageable (an elevator, a stairlift, good lighting) are usually the first things to fail. An access plan built in advance covers four things: backup mobility equipment, a support network you can actually call, a plan for any medical equipment that needs power, and a pre-decided answer to “where do we go if we can’t stay here.”
What Changes When the Power Goes Out
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) points out a specific problem: “the built environment, such as elevators that require power and poorly designed pathways, can create barriers for people with disabilities during an emergency.” An elevator or stairlift that works fine every other day of the year becomes unusable the moment the building loses power. CDC also notes that people with disabilities “may encounter greater barriers due to disruptions in transportation, social networks, and other support systems before, during, and after emergencies” — meaning the neighbor who usually helps, or the paratransit ride you usually count on, may not be available either. Both points argue for the same thing: plan the workaround now, while you have full mobility options and daylight to think it through.
Build the Access Plan
This is the core document your household needs. It doesn’t have to be formal — a page in your emergency binder or a shared note works — but it should cover four areas.
Backup Mobility Equipment
CDC’s guidance is direct on this: “if you use a power wheelchair, have a lightweight manual chair available as a backup if possible.” The same logic extends to any device with a battery or a motor — a manual wheelchair, walker, or cane kept on hand as a fallback means a dead battery doesn’t strand anyone mid-evacuation. If a full backup chair isn’t realistic for your household, at minimum know where the manual controls or disengage lever on the powered device are, and confirm that whoever else is home knows how to use them.
Your Support Network
CDC’s planning guidance recommends building a contact list of “people who support your physical, mental, or emotional health, such as family, friends, neighbors, and care providers,” and making “arrangements for your contacts to check on you directly” during an emergency. For a stairs-specific access plan, that means naming, in advance, who in the building or on the block can physically help if stairs are the only way out — and telling that person the plan before you need it, not during the outage. CDC also stresses thinking through “how you will communicate your needs to people supporting you during an emergency” — write down what help actually looks like (carrying equipment, spotting on stairs, calling for backup) so it isn’t improvised under stress.
Backup Power for Medical Equipment
If anyone in the household depends on powered medical equipment — CDC specifically lists breathing machines, power wheelchairs or scooters, oxygen equipment, suction devices, and home dialysis equipment — the access plan needs a power layer, not just a stairs layer. CDC’s guidance recommends:
- Checking the device’s user manual or contacting the manufacturer to identify what backup power sources are compatible with it
- Keeping manual, non-electric backups where they exist (a manual wheelchair, walker, or cane alongside the powered version)
- Keeping cellphones and any battery-powered medical devices fully charged ahead of anticipated weather or grid events
- Writing down the model and serial number of each piece of equipment as part of a documented emergency power plan
CDC points households toward the ADA National Network’s emergency power planning checklist for people who rely on electricity- or battery-dependent assistive technology, and toward FDA guidance on preparing for and handling power outages for home medical device users.
Where You’ll Go If You Can’t Stay
CDC’s planning guidance also recommends thinking through “multiple places you could go and how you will get there if you need to evacuate your home,” along with how you’d evacuate with any assistive devices, or replace them if they’re lost or damaged. For a household where stairs are the obstacle, that means confirming in advance: is there a ground-floor space you could shelter in temporarily, is there a neighbor or family member with accessible entry nearby, and does your local emergency management office have a registry for residents with access and functional needs? Ready.gov’s general kit guidance also flags that supply planning should account for “unique needs your family might have, such as supplies for pets or seniors” — the same principle applies to mobility needs.
What to Keep Within Reach
Ready.gov’s baseline emergency kit guidance lists water (one gallon per person per day), a battery-powered or hand-crank radio with a NOAA Weather Radio tone alert, a flashlight, extra batteries, and a first aid kit as core supplies — and specifically calls out prescription medications and prescription eyeglasses or contact lens solution as items to have on hand. For a household managing a stairs-access issue, it’s worth keeping these items, along with any manual mobility backups and charged battery packs, at whatever level of the home the person spends the most time on — not in a basement or upper-floor closet that itself requires stairs to reach.
Practice the Plan and Keep It Current
CDC’s guidance closes with three steps worth repeating here: practice carrying out the plan, review and update it every year, and share it with the people who support you. A plan that only exists on paper is untested. Walking through it once — who calls whom, where the manual chair is, what the ground-floor fallback location actually looks like — surfaces gaps while you have the luxury of daylight and full power to fix them.
What’s Verified, What’s Not, and the Next Decision
What’s well-documented here, from CDC and Ready.gov: the value of a manual equipment backup, a named support network, a documented power plan for medical devices, and a pre-chosen evacuation destination. What this article does not cover, because it isn’t something a general-audience preparedness page can responsibly verify or standardize: the physical technique for moving someone down a stairwell during an actual emergency. That’s equipment- and situation-specific, and it’s worth learning directly from your local fire department, a building manager, or a DME supplier who can assess your specific stairs, equipment, and household — not from a general article. The next practical step for most households reading this is smaller than it sounds: pick one item from the access plan above — the support-network contact, the manual backup chair, or the device power documentation — and handle that one thing this week.
This article is educational and does not provide medical advice, treatment recommendations, or evacuation training. For guidance specific to your equipment, building, or medical needs, consult your device manufacturer, DME supplier, treating clinician, or local emergency management office.
See more emergency preparedness and self-reliance guides from ThePreppersBlueprint.com.