Making Preparations for Evacuation of Disabled People from the University
Key points for Heads of Departments and Senior Managers
- The University has a policy on Disabled Egress from Buildings in the Event of an Emergency. This recognises our duties under the Health & Safety at Work Act and under the Disability Discrimination Act.
- The Policy requires that access provision be complemented by evacuation provision and is applicable to disabled individuals about whom we have specific knowledge.
- The University must also anticipate a need for special arrangements for those who are disabled. This requirement to anticipate is particularly relevant to areas used by visitors and for areas where we may have no prior knowledge about the disability of the user.
- Heads of Department and managers of staff, service units and general areas must take account of the policy and ensure that appropriate procedures are put in place to safely evacuate staff, students or any visitors who have a disability.
- Course co-ordinators are responsible for ensuring that there are workable procedures for evacuating individual students about whom they have knowledge from any place of study related to that course.
Pro-active requirements
Because the University must anticipate that disabled individuals may wish to use our facilities, generic evacuation provisions that complement those for access must be put in place. Such facilities include:
- Service areas: For example:
- Library facilities
- Sport and exercise facilities
- Recreational and social facilities (such as G12 and Hospitality Services, Hunterian Museum and Gallery)
For these the manager is responsible for developing and recording appropriate procedures.
- Centrally bookable rooms and common areas in multi-user buildings. The production of a generic assessment and procedures for these areas is the responsibility of Estates & Facilities Management in conjunction with the Student Disability Service and Safety & Environmental Protection Services.
- Academic Departments including public access areas and teaching facilities.
Targeted requirements
There will be a range of trigger mechanisms associated with the requirements e.g.
- Staff: Human Resources will alert Heads of Department if a disabled person applies for a job. Heads of Department must develop a procedure to alert them to the development of any temporary or permanent disability in existing staff.
- Students: In cases where information has been made available to them Student Disability Service will alert course co-ordinators as part of the process of considering access provision for a disabled student. Otherwise departments must develop an appropriate arrangement to identify requirements.
- Visitors: Heads of Department and Service Managers must ensure that, where practicable, any particular requirements are identified and appropriate procedures are put in place to coincide with the visit.
Further information is given in Making Preparations for Evacuation of Disabled People from the University. Introduction and General Considerations and in the supporting document Developing and Recording Evacuation Plans for Disabled People.