ADA National Network Learning Session: Perspectives of Building Occupants with Mobility Impairments on Fire Evacuation and Elevators

Building occupants with mobility impairments face difficulties during fire evacuations that may limit their options. This webinar presents a study that was conducted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to develop guidance for building designers, facility managers, safety officers and emergency personnel on how occupants, particularly those with mobility impairments, can most effectively evacuate buildings during fire emergencies.

Learning objectives:

• Understand the variety of experiences, both positive and negative, that occupants with mobility impairments have with fire evacuations.
• Identify the evacuation methods that occupants with mobility impairments may use in response to a fire emergency, along with the reported benefits and concerns with each.
• Describe the concept of Occupant Evacuation Elevators (OEEs).
• Name the key factors that improve the fire evacuation experience of occupants with mobility impairments.

Presenters:

Kathryn Butler is a Physicist in the Fire Research Division at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). 

Erica Kuligowski is the Group Leader of the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) Fire Group in the Fire Research Division at NIST, with a background in fire protection engineering and sociology. 

Susanne Furman is a cognitive scientist in the National Institute of Standards and Technology's Visualization and Usability Group, where she works on and investigates user's mental models in cybersecurity and usability of biometric devices for the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.