Introduction

A two-day conference on Emergency Evacuation of People With Physical Disabilities From Buildings, sponsored by the Interagency Committee on Disability Research (ICDR), Interagency Subcommittee on Technology (IST), was held on Oct. 13-14, 2004, in Rockville, Md. This document is meant to summarize the conference’s presentations and discussions. William Peterson, from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR),and the IST cochair, welcomed those assembled. He emphasized that the title of the conference, which was limited only to physical disabilities, was intended to give participants a clear direction and focus. While the ICDR is concerned about issues pertaining to all people with disabilities, Peterson continued, a two-day conference does not allow time to fully explore and develop recommendations for each disability area.

According to Peterson, the ICDR is an interagency committee affording the opportunity to sponsor meetings of this nature. Its purpose is to promote coordination and cooperation among federal agencies to better determine the future direction of disability and rehabilitation research. This is the third annual IST conference. The previous conferences focused on Wayfinding Technology (to assist people with low vision and blindness) and Interference to Hearing Technologies by Cellular Telephones. These conferences brought together a critical mass of expertise from the government, research community, academia, and from consumers and advocates. At the end of the two-day conference, Peterson hoped recommendations for research would be developed to drive this issue forward and allow people with physical disabilities to have better prospects for emergency evacuation from buildings.

Among the 85 presenters and participants were federal employees involved in emergency preparedness; first responders and emergency management personnel; building and life safety code practitioners; manufacturers of evacuation devices; people with disabilities who have used evacuation devices; and leading researchers in mobility devices, human factors and egress modeling. Conference presenters and participants exchanged information and ideas during panel presentations and breakout sessions. The event provided a forum to discuss:

• ·The impact of building and life safety codes on the evacuation of people with physical disabilities from buildings;
• ·The current evacuation procedures for people with physical disabilities from the first responder perspective;
• ·The experiences of people with physical disabilities during emergency evacuations from buildings;
• ·The design and development of different types of evacuation devices; and
• ·The current state of research on mobility equipment, human factors and egress modeling.

After panel discussions, participants joined breakout groups to develop recommendations for future research in the field of emergency preparedness for people with physical disabilities.