Evacuation Solutions for Individuals with Functional Limitations in the Indoor Built Environment: A Scoping Review

Abstract

The built environment continues to become increasingly accessible to people with disabilities, yet there remains a lack of focus on how these individuals are evacuated in emergencies. The objective of this scoping review was to survey the academic literature to identify solutions for safely evacuating individuals with functional limitations from the indoor built environment (i.e., buildings). Journal articles and conference proceedings published in the year 2002 onwards were included. Two pairs of reviewers independently evaluated 3562 articles from ten databases and identified 99 articles. The results were categorized into six main evacuation solution types: notification, wayfinding, egress, building design, strategy, and training programs. Our findings highlight the importance of tailoring solutions to the needs of individuals with different functional limitations. Future work should focus on expanding the number of solutions available for (1) emergencies beyond fires (e.g., natural disasters); (2) unique building types that may require specialized engineering considerations; and (3) a greater variety of impairments (e.g., seeing, hearing, cognitive). We also emphasize the need for more interdisciplinary work and the importance of including rescuers and rescuees in emergency preparedness discussions. These collaborations will ensure that building designs, organizational procedures, and evacuation aids complement each other to maximize safety. To our knowledge, this is the first scoping review to identify solutions for evacuating individuals with functional limitations from buildings. These findings may help inform future recommendations for new evacuation guidelines around the world.