Inclusive Emergency Evacuation Procedures For Disabled Employees
Did you know that around 38% of the US workforce are disabled? If you don’t account for disabilities in your health and safety, recruitment, and HR policies, you will exclude many workers.
How can you make your emergency evacuation procedures more inclusive for disabled employees?
Keep reading as we explore the top health and safety tips for supporting disabled employees with the accessible features they need during an emergency evacuation.
How To Create Inclusive Emergency Evacuation Procedures For Your Employees
Suppose there is a fire or natural disaster at your workplace. In that case, you need to provide accessible ways for disabled employees to leave the building and make their way to safety - whether this be a lockdown zone or to the building’s exterior. Here’s how.
Inclusive Alarm Systems
Alarm systems allow your staff to stay aware of any potential hazards or disasters on site. To meet commercial building regulations and standards, you should have the following alarm systems installed on the premises:
Fire alarms
Carbon monoxide detectors
If there is a fire or gas leak, knowing about it right away can help to prevent the loss of life in a catastrophic event. Enlisting the services of a professional alarm installer will allow you to ensure there are no ‘blind spots’ in your system, where potentially fatal hazards will not be detected.
However, not all alarm systems are inclusive. Simply having a loud alarm to alert employees of an emergency will not be sufficient to alert those who are hard of hearing. In addition to providing audio cues, you should provide visual cues that will make deaf staff members aware of the emergency.
If you opt for a cloud-based alarm system, you can even ensure that your staff members receive a mobile alert based on emergency events. Their phone will vibrate and flash, and an alert will pop up to let them know that they should move to the nearest exit within the building. To ensure these alerts are successful, provide policies so your deaf employees have their mobile devices at hand or in sight throughout the day - so they don’t miss a thing.
Accessible Access Control
Not all access control systems are built with disabled individuals in mind. They often feature pin pads kept out of arm’s reach for those in wheelchairs, making an exit terribly inconvenient in an emergency.
One of the best ways to make access control more accessible and to create a disability-friendly workplace is to opt for a cloud-based system that enables the following features:
Biometric access control - you can integrate commercial security cameras with your access control system to identify individuals with facial recognition. This will allow them to enter hands-free and automatically.
Mobile access credentials - alternatively, you can implement mobile access credentials instead of keycards and fobs. The benefit of mobile access credentials is that users can enter without touching anything. All they need to do is wave their hand over the access control reader. This will trigger remote communication with their mobile devices to unlock the door and permit entry. This way, disabled persons can enter rooms without pressing a button or using a keycard reader, which can be quite difficult.
Remote locking and unlocking - when you opt for a cloud-based access control system, you can lock and unlock doors from anywhere using a cloud-based control center or mobile application. With this feature, you can allow disabled persons to leave the building quickly in an emergency by unlocking all doors simultaneously, creating more effective and swift emergency procedures.
For the above reasons, choosing a cloud-based access control system is the surest way to allow disabled people to leave the building quickly during an emergency evacuation.
Ramps And Elevators
Ramps and elevators are necessary for buildings to allow disabled persons to enter and exit the building. However, in the event of a fire, disabled persons may be prohibited from using the lift, as this would place them in danger. Instead, you should have security staff escort disabled staff members down the stairs to the nearest evacuation point. Or, you should provide accessible ramps where applicable.
Summary
If you want to improve your health, safety, and security strategies, the focus should be accessibility. With so many disabled individuals in our workforce, it’s essential to create more inclusivity with security hardware and accessible installations - there’s no excuse for neglecting inclusivity. Consider whether your existing evacuation strategy accounts for disabled individuals or whether it’s time to shift your focus.