What you need to know
Disability Discrimination Act: emergency procedures
Headlines
- The Regulatory
Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 places a requirement to include
evacuation plans for disabled people within the fire safety risk
assessment
- Public bodies have a duty to go further, and to actively
look at ways of ensuring that disabled people are treated
equally
- Access to buildings is not just a matter of ramps – if people
with disabilities are to have equal access they must also be
assured that there is a safe way for them to evacuate in an
emergency.
What are the key regulations and standards?
Part II (paragraph 6) of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA)
1995,
2005 places
a duty on employers to make reasonable adjustments for disabled
employees, while part III (paragraph 21) places a similar duty on
the providers of services to make adjustments for the users of
those services.
In addition to the DDA, the Disability Equality Duty places
further responsibilities on public sector bodies to promote
equality for disabled people in every area of their work. This
includes schools, libraries and hospitals.
The Regulatory
Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 requires that those responsible
for a building provide a fire safety risk assessment that includes
an emergency evacuation plan for all people likely to be in the
premises, including disabled people.
Building regulations in England and Wales are made under the
Building Act 1984, and set out in the Building
Regulations 2000 and subsequent amendments. The two key parts
of the Building Regulations relevant to disability evacuation are
in schedule 1
of the 2000 regulations. Part M relates to access and facilities
for disabled people and Part B covers fire precautions, including
means of escape in case of fire.
BS8300: 2009 ‘Design of buildings and their approaches to meet the
needs of disabled people’ is the British Standard which
supports and defines Part M. BS 9999: 2008 is the code of
practice for fire safety in the design, management and use of
buildings and includes information on evacuating disabled
people.
Is there any other advice?
The supplementary guide ‘Fire Safety Risk Assessment – Means of
Escape for Disabled People’ (2007) is available from the
Communities and Local Government website. This explains in more
detail what organisations should do to consider disabled people as
part of the fire risk assessment process.
What do organisations have to do?
Ideally, buildings or alterations to buildings should take
account of the needs of disabled people, to reduce any problems
raised by the building. For example, consider how good natural
lighting can be maintained on escape routes, or how ground floor
office space can be provided for those with restricted
mobility.
All existing emergency procedures should be reviewed to check
that the needs of disabled people have been considered.
Where there are disabled people in the workplace, work with them
to develop a Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan.
What is a Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan?
A Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan (PEEP) is an individual
plan tailored to the needs of a disabled employee, regular visitor
or service user. It will define the route the person is likely to
take, and what support they will need in the event of an
evacuation.
What about occasional disabled visitors or service users?
A range of standard evacuation plans can be provided which take
account of existing emergency systems, plans and procedures, the
types of escape that can be made available, the nature of the
disability and the likely location of the disabled person within
the building. These can be held at reception and offered to
disabled visitors as part of the reception procedure. The disabled
visitor can be offered options for help, and given appropriate
instructions.
Example PEEPS are provided in the appendices to ‘Fire
Safety Risk Assessment – Means of Escape for Disabled
People’.
What can be done?
‘Do the duty’ provides examples of measures taken to improve the
evacuation of disabled people in ‘Beyond
Good Intentions: A resource for local authorities implementing the
Disability Equality Duty’.
Measures include:
- Installation of evacuation chairs
- Training a number of people on each floor in the use of
evacuation chairs, with those trained made aware of the people they
would be expected to help
- An evacuation drill using the new chairs, to establish the time
needed overall.
What other reasonable adjustments should I consider?
You may need to provide emergency instructions in different
formats for different disabilities, for example:
- Braille, large print or audio instructions and a tactile map of
the building for an employee with a visual impairment
- Pictorial instructions or a physical demonstration of an
evacuation route for those with learning disabilities.
Organisations should also consider how people are alerted to the
need to evacuate:
- Visual fire warning system or vibrating alarm for a deaf
employee
- Extra support for people through a ‘buddy’ system.
Practical measures include:
- Colour coding of escape routes for those with orientation
disorders, autism or dyslexia
- Step edge markings
- Providing disabled people with an easy means of contacting
someone for help, advice or information.
What else?
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) warns that risk
assessments should be used to ensure that reasonable adjustments
are made to take account of an individual’s disabilities; they
should not be used to discriminate against someone.
The HSE website has advice on how to take account of
disabilities within a risk
assessment.
If disabled people work for your organisation, seek their ideas
on how the workplace can be adapted to ensure their safety, and the
safety of others who may try and help them, in the event of an
emergency.
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