Supporting Evacuation of Disabled People – Organizational and Technological Challenges

Abstract

Aim: The aim of this publication is to present the most important aspects concerning the conditions for evacuation of people with various types of disabilities – from mobility problems, to reduced perception in the event of a threat, and to indicate the most important challenges both in terms of legal regulations, as well as organizational and technological conditions for ensuring effective evacuation of disabled people. Introduction: People with disabilities are a group that requires special consideration when planning evacuation from public utility facilities, because many of these people – depending on the type and degree of their dysfunction – will not be able to evacuate from the danger zone on their own. The inspection carried out in 2019 by the Delegation of the Supreme Audit Office in Poznań confirmed the need to adapt the applicable legal regulations in this regard (in practice, fire safety instructions, evacuation plans, staff training and equipping facilities with adequate equipment supporting the evacuation of people with disabilities) [1]. In addition to legal and technological aspects, a very important factor in the effective evacuation of disabled people are organizational solutions adopted in a given facility, which should take into account the individual specificity (cubature) and functions of a given facility. Methodology: As part of the research process, theoretical research was used, such as: analysis of literature and legal documents, synthesis, general- ization, inference, comparison and analogy. During the research, national and foreign sources (from the United States and Great Britain) were analyzed. The selection of individual countries was guided by the level of development of the solutions adopted in these countries dedicated to supporting the evacuation of disabled people in a situation of threat to their life or health, as well as the availability of data sources. Conclusions: The presented analysis of the conditions for the evacuation of people with disabilities from public utility buildings shows the challenges that both the legislator and managers of facilities in the country face in this area, as well as the emergency services. The latter – similarly to people with disabilities – are the systemic beneficiaries of the desired changes in the area of law and tactics of rescue operations, from the moment of alerting about an event in the facility where there are people who are unable to evacuate themselves. Introducing good practices, verified in other countries, into common application, should significantly improve rescue operations. The expected effect will be to shorten the time of providing help to all people unable to evacuate themselves in an emergency – regardless of their number, as well as the type and specificity of the public facility in which the life or health threatening situation occurred. Keywords: evacuation of disabled people, public utility buildings, intelligent construction, modelling and computer simulations, individual evacuation plan Type of article: review article