Lacking Wheelchair Accessibility in Emergencies

How might we consider accessibility for people using a wheelchair in the case of an
emergency? During an emergency situation, for example, fire drills, people are commonly told to exit
using the stairs as elevators are immediately shut off for safety purposes. For people using
wheelchairs, there are some, but very limited options to safely evacuating a building or location when
only stairs are accessible and usable.
Some options to emergency evacuation for wheelchair
users may be influenced by the type of wheelchair a person is
using, any physical limitations in being carried down a flight of
stairs, the cost of wheelchair escape devices that are used,
necessary devices they have attached to their wheelchairs such
as breathing or feeding tubes, or a lack of access to devices that
may combat this problem.

While there are requirements placed by the Americans with

Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) that demand there to be elevators
in buildings, there are still some exceptions to that rule. One
exception includes that if a building has fewer than three stories,
they do not require an elevator which can limit accessibility for
that building and wheelchair users [4].
[5]
In the United States, 10 percent of people
have a physical disability, and over 3 million
people use a physical wheelchair or an
electric wheelchair full time [1]. This means
that there is a large population subject to face
the problem of a lack of accessibility for
people using wheelchairs in the case of
emergencies that involve stairs.
[3]
In addition to the current population, there is a
large population of Baby Boomers between
the ages of 55 to 75 [3]. This population
creates an even greater demand to solve such problems because this population will soon be entering
stages where more people are in need of using wheelchairs.

Finally, by focusing on this problem, people with disabilities may be more inclined to travel because
people with disabilities make an average of 2.6 trips a day in comparison to people without disabilities
who only take 3.6 trips a day [2]. This lacking number of trips is often caused by the fear of accessibility,
as that is what we hope to mitigate and eventually solve.

[1] https://www.karmanhealthcare.com/wheelchairs-in-the-united-states/
[2] https://www.bts.gov/travel-patterns-with-disabilities
[3] https://knoema.com/infographics/egyydzc/us-population-by-age-and-generation-in-2020
[4] https://www.buildings.com/articles/34126/ada-elevators-what-are-requirements
[5] https://www.karmanhealthcare.com/different-types-of-wheelchairs/