Evacuation of People with Disability & Emergent Limitations: Considerations for Safer Buildings & Efficient Evacuations
The Guide contains 154 pages in total, including useful information with considerations for all building occupants, including people with disability. The Guide includes templates for personal and group emergency evacuation plans (PEEPs and GEEPS).
Whilst undertaking the research to prepare the Guide it became evident that:
- Building owners, building managers and employers need to take a holistic and pro-active approach to ensuring they have met the needs of all building occupants and have plans in place for evacuation of their building; and
- A significant proportion of people entering these buildings could be exposing themselves to an unacceptable risk every time they enter – unless their needs have been considered and the necessary plans for their safe evacuation are in place.
The primary objectives of the Guide are to:
- Help workplaces and employees work collaboratively to develop personal emergency evacuation plans.
- Provide guidance to employers and facility managers, so that they may identify opportunities to reduce risk and provide a safer built environment.
- Assist building occupants, including people with disability to identify strategies to:
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- Reduce their own risk exposure
- Understand legislative requirements
- Determine who is responsible for their personal safety and evacuation planning
- Equip them with the knowledge and resources to ask the right questions about their own safety
- Work with their employers to develop an individual personal emergency evacuation plan
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Universal Design Meets the Exit Sign White Paper
Universal Design Meets the Exit Sign is an initiative of The Accessible Exit Sign Project. The Project is an international awareness campaign that promotes the need for an accessible means of egress. The objectives of the Project are to start discussions between industry stakeholders, disability groups, legislators, developers, and insurers etc, to look at better building design solutions that provide safer buildings, reduce risk and meet the needs of all occupants.
A critical part of safe evacuations is providing clear wayfinding information for all occupants, with appropriate exit signage to identify the accessible exits, refuge areas, evacuation lifts and other evacuation devices.
The Universal Design Meets the Exit Sign concept presents a case to support the use of these signs in all buildings, which can provide a safer built environment.
Universal Design Meets the Exit Sign White Paper Performance Assessment Template
The Universal Design Meets the Exit Sign White Paper presents the case for a new generation of exit signs to be used in all forms of transportation, facilities and buildings. The White Paper discusses the many complex issues that have led to the development of this initiative and argues for the support of these new emergency and exit signs.
The performance-based template provides support to accept the use of The Accessible Exit Sign Project signage as a variation from the prescriptive ‘Deemed-to-Satisfy’ provisions of the building code. The template also provides support for this approach with consideration to the content of the White Paper. It proposes the use of a performance-based building solution to accept that emergency egress and exit signage provided throughout the building will adopt a best practice ‘universal design’ approach and argues that this approach provides a safer solution for all building occupants, including people with disabilities. The proposed signs presented in the assessment form part of the ‘Accessible Exit Sign Project’, which adopt the ‘Accessible Means of Egress Icon’ on all emergency egress and exit signage used throughout the building.