Employers' Guide to Including Employees with Disabilities in Emergency Evacuation Plans

Motor Impairments:

• To evacuate individuals with motor impairments, employers can purchase evacuation devices. These devices help move people with motor impairments down the stairs or across rough terrain. If evacuation devices are used, personnel should be trained to operate and maintain them.

  • Locate information on emergency evacuation devices from JAN’s SOAR at: http://AskJAN.org/cgi-win/OrgQuery.exe?Sol193.

• Employers should remove any physical barriers (boxes, supplies, furniture) to insure a barrier-free route of travel out of the building.

• Employers may want to provide heavy gloves to protect individuals' hands from debris when pushing their manual wheelchairs, a patch kit to repair flat tires, and extra batteries for those who use motorized wheelchairs or scooters. Arrangements should also be made to make wheelchairs available after evacuation.