The phrase "as they respond" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to indicate actions or reactions occurring simultaneously with someone's response.
Example: "The audience listened intently as they respond to the questions posed by the speaker."
Alternatives: "while they reply" or "as they answer".
Mayors, governors and local officials do this all the time as they respond practically to circumstances.
A lot of voters will feel renewed anger as they respond with those famous clichés, "They're all the same".
They want their news unsullied by commercial motive, even as they respond to the ads that surround and subsidize it.
In New York, he tends to hover over his students, gripping their shoulders as they respond to his questions.
Aid agencies jostle for public attention as they respond to humanitarian crises: natural disaster, war, famine and disease.
Indeed, the film begins with a sequence of talking heads — the faces and expostulations of the newly sacked, as they respond to the life-draining news.
"In delivering the messages to students, we have been able to be increasingly positive with them in assemblies as they respond to the changes".
It's a model which I hope might be of interest to our larger institutions as they respond to the challenges ahead.
The other part of the equation lies in a number of brain regions that are reshaped in adolescence as they respond to soaring levels of sex hormones.
"The president called Boston Mayor Tom Menino and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick to express his concern for those who were injured and to make clear that his administration is ready to provide needed support as they respond to the incident".
The traditional wooden buildings of Japan are resistant to earthquakes as they respond to earth movements.
