Having run my unit from two completely different buildings, one a
main building with central security, fire-resistant lifts,
fire-proof stairwells, house-staff etc, the other an isolated early
Victorian town house with none of the above. I find the procedures
vary with the environment.
As regards procedures, these were largely dictated to me by
the building regulations and the local fire chief. In the main
building he insisted that people in wheelchairs were taken to a
refuge area, which existed on each floor, and that they remain there
until a house man over-road the lift cut-off and brought a lift in
one of the retardent shafts. Our circumstances were unusual in that
we knew exactly where our clients were. For students generally it was
much harder keeping track of where they were, or even if they were in
the building.
In our current premises, the town house, we are largely our own
masters and have a simple but efficient evacuation system. The only
thing we have learned is negative and that is that flashing lights
are pretty useless for deaf people. They operate off the alarm system
battery which does not allow for them to be very bright. Thus in
computer rooms our deaf students simply don't notice them. Vibrators
would probably be better but that requires even further modifications
to the system.
As our clients are largely a captive audience and can offer awareness
of Health and Safety as part of their NVQ, what I can promise is that
there is no substitute for taking the time to individually initiate
anyone for whom it matters into the rituals of what to do. As the
disability varies so the advice might change. Fine, do it and make
sure they have understood. We take them through the rules and then
insist they complete a questionnaire which checks they have
understood. Apart from anything else we then have proof that we did
tell them and they did show they knew what was required of them.
Given the big variations in buildings this is the most general advice I
can think of.
Dave Laycock MBE
Head of CCPD, Chair of NFAC
Computer Centre for People with Disabilities
University of Westminster
72 Great Portland Street
London W1N 5AL
tel. 0171-911-5161
fax. 0171-911-5162
WWW home page: http://www.wmin.ac.uk/ccpd/
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