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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/ %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%