April 4, 2007—A new Emergency Evacuation Planning Guide for People with Disabilities has been published by the US National Fire Protection Association (NFPA).
The document provides general information to assist in identifying the needs of people with disabilities related to emergency evacuation planning.
According to the US Census Bureau, nearly 49 million Americans had one or more disabilities in 2000. The guide addresses the need for evacuation plans to include everyone, and highlights the needs, criteria, and minimum information required to incorporate appropriate planning strategies for people with disabilities into these plans.
Five general categories of disabilities covered in the guide include mobility impairments, visual impairments, hearing impairments, speech impairments, and cognitive impairments. Four elements of evacuation information needed by occupants are: notification, way finding, use of way, and assistance. Basically, in the event of an emergency, a person would need to be notified of the emergency; identify a way out; assess if they can get out on their own, with the help of a device, or with assistance; and identify and express if assistance is needed and what that would involve.
Materials include a personal emergency evacuation planning checklist that building services managers and people with disabilities can use to design a personalized evacuation plan.
The Emergency Evacuation Planning Guide for People with Disabilities is available for download at no cost from NFPA’s Web site.
