Accessible service for customers coping with PTSD: the quiet challenge every service provider needs to understand

Accessibility is much more than a ramp, an elevator or braille signage. There is a form of accessibility you cannot see, but service providers meet it every day — at bank counters, clinics, government offices and every service touchpoint: emotional and mental accessibility for people coping with post-traumatic stress disorder.

A study of a representative sample of Israelis before and after October 7th found a sharp rise in PTSD prevalence — from 16.2% before the events to 29.8% about six weeks after.

At the same time, Ministry of Defence figures show the mental-health impact only growing over time: of the ~82,400 injured people currently treated by the rehabilitation branch, ~31,000 are people coping with mental-health injuries and PTSD, and estimates project ~100,000 injured by 2028 — roughly half of them coping with mental-health injuries.

On top of all this, only a small fraction of people experiencing post-traumatic symptoms reach a formal diagnosis — meaning the real population is far larger. The implication is simple: a growing population of civilians, discharged combatants, event survivors and their families arrives as customers, patients and service seekers at every business and institution in Israel.

Coping with trauma can appear as anxiety, hyper-vigilance, difficulty in noisy or crowded environments, sensitivity to long queues, difficulty concentrating on complex forms, and sometimes strong physical reactions to unexpected triggers such as a sudden noise or a prolonged wait.

It is important to understand: these are not "strange behaviours" — they are natural responses of a nervous system that went through a serious event and is now in a process of recovery.

Many service providers encounter situations they don't necessarily know how to identify: a customer asking to leave the queue mid-way, someone struggling to fill out a form who looks "uncooperative", a person asking to sit in a quiet corner, or someone who disappears for a moment and asks to come back.

Without the right training, it's easy to misinterpret this as customer impatience — while in reality it is a legitimate survival mechanism. Dedicated training for service providers gives the team the tools to recognise and respond correctly.

Remote form filling — the option to fill a digital form from home, before arrival, reduces on-site load and wait time.

Personal help with forms — a representative who guides the process patiently, without rushing the customer.

Adapted waiting — the option to wait outside, in a quiet corner, or away from the crowd, with an SMS update when the customer's turn arrives.

Flexible communication — an option to arrange things by phone or message instead of only face-to-face.

A calm environment — non-aggressive lighting, reduced background noise where possible, and a private space for sensitive conversations.

Beyond the technical tools, the most important thing is the human approach: patience, a calm tone of voice, avoiding pressure, and treating the customer as a whole person and not as a "problem" that needs to be solved quickly.

There is a substantial difference between saying "a person who suffers from PTSD" versus "a person coping with trauma" or "a person in a process of overcoming an event".

A concept worth knowing is "post-traumatic growth" — the process where people, alongside the hardship, also develop meaning, resilience and new strengths as a result of the event they went through.

This language is not only more accurate — it also influences the way we, as service providers, perceive the person in front of us.

The Equal Rights for Persons with Disabilities Law and its accessibility regulations (including Amendment 34 from 2022) require service providers to make their service accessible not only in the physical sense but also in the procedural and behavioural sense — so that a person with a disability, including a mental or emotional disability, can receive equal and dignified service.

In the coming years, service providers in Israel are expected to meet customers coping with traumatic events at growing frequency — a direct consequence of the reality the country has been through since October 7th and in general.

It is important that service providers go through dedicated training and acquire the practical and human tools required, in order to provide equal, sensitive and inclusive service — to every service recipient, each at their own pace, in a process of recovery and growth.