1.13 Help for people with special needs
Of all the people who may be especially at
risk you will need to pay particular attention
to people who have special needs, including
those with a disability. The Disability Rights
Commission estimates that 11 million people
in this country have some form of disability,
which may mean that they find it more difficult
to leave a building if there is a fire. Under the
Disability Discrimination Act,
if disabled people
could realistically expect to use premises, then
you must anticipate any reasonable adjustments
that would make it easier for that right to
be exercised.
The Disability Discrimination Act
includes the concept of ‘reasonable adjustments’ and this
can be carried over into fire safety law. It can
mean different things in different circumstances.
For a small business it may be considered
reasonable to provide contrasting colours on a
handrail to help people with vision impairment
to follow an escape route more easily. However,
it might be unreasonable to expect that same
business to install an expensive voice-alarm
system. Appropriate ‘reasonable adjustments’
for a large business or organisation may be much
more significant.