Museologist Notes 8.5

Accessible Evacuation Procedures Part 2.

The first half can be found here.

In the first half of this topic I talked about the importance of brain storming and the various consultants you might seek out when developing your accessible evacuation plan. I highly recommend you check it out before you read the second half of the article.

If you don’t have time for that right now I’ll summarize here: Focus on brainstorming first to get the ball rolling. Do so in a few different methods such as a mind map or round table discussions. keep in mind that not all methods work for every one. Think about using online options such as google docs or MindMup.

Once you have your brainstorming and planning underway, but not concluded, begin your consultation process. As always, ask disabled people what would work best for them, and listen, but this time also bring in experts such as building inspectors and emergency services. These people can help you with the legal requirements and can give you insights into your space that you can use in concert with disabled voices to create a legally safe accessible evacuation plan.

This half of the article will focus on

1. Follow Through
2. Potential Costs
3. Training for Staff and volunteers

Follow Through

The follow through is probably the hardest part of the whole process. You have your notes, you have held a few consultation meetings, now you have to actually write the plan and finalise it. Here are some things you might include:

• written plan to be used for training and your records. This might include insurance information; evacuation routes; muster points; important phone numbers; instructions for safety equipment and more.
• signage which may include raised lettering and braille, large print, maps, bright colours.
• Reports about the accessible challenges that you cannot change, for example my third floor gallery cannot update the elevator to be accessible and we cannot create a positive air-flow space for a refuge point. This is important and staff and volunteers need to be able to tell emergency responders that.

Not only does the follow through give you a nice, new, accessible (or more accessible) evacuation plan but it also shows your consultants that you are serious about accessibility. When you take their concerns and suggestions seriously you build up the trust between the museum and the community. This means you can more easily call on them in the future. And they can call on you too.

Consider having disabled people (staff or consultants) in to test the systems you put in place. This way you can find out right away if there is an issue instead of waiting until the first emergency.

The follow through is, in my opinion, the hardest part of the process. Museums are busy places, projects come up, schedules change, things happen. For emergency plans though, the follow through is the only part that matters. You can have the best plans, the best consultants, the best ideas, the best intentions. But until that plan is in place and public none of it matters.

Potential Costs

For the most part I try to keep my advice to the lowest cost I can manage. Most of the resources I link to are free to use, and I try to make a note of it when something is behind a pay wall. I have to tell you that this process is likely going to be expensive.

Not only should you compensate your consultants for their time but you will likely have to pay for new items for your evacuation plan. Part 2 of your accessible evacuation plan has to consider the cost to you.

• Accessible signs. These don’t have to be ginormous but they should have braille and/or raised lettering depending on the needs of your community; large print of the map and instructions; etc
• Clearly marked off safe gathering points with in-floor dimensions. These serve both you and your guests. They let you know how much space you need to keep free no matter what, and they tell your guests the safest places.
• New announcement methods. As stated in the first part of this article, I completely didn’t realize that Deaf people need to have a visual announcement method. This might be folded into staff training. It might also be something that takes over the screens in your galleries. Imagine if, in an emergency situation all your in-gallery screens switched automatically over to a prerecorded message in both writing and sign language telling your guest that something has happened. If I had all the money in the world I would do that!
• New training materials. These are a lesser cost but still one worth considering.

The reason I recommend compensating your consults is two fold: First you must be worth their time. Spending time with you should not cost them. If they are spending money to help you with your task it becomes a burden; and part 2 it helps sew seeds of trust and respect. You show that you respect their time and they are more likely to think favorably of you and your museum in the future.

Training Your Staff/Volunteers

Staff and volunteer training cannot be a one-time deal. For paid workers, emergency training should be part of orientation with ‘refreshers’ as often as you think necessary. I think once a year would work for me, you might be comfortable with once every two years or prefer every six months.

A number of museums have ‘volunteer packets’ or guides or other documentation available to volunteers when they take the post. One museum I worked for had about 50 pages with specific questions about the galleries and objects that made volunteers learn about the subject. It also included information about how to work safely with children and vulnerable adults, fire safety, and museum ethics. At the orientation the volunteer coordinator took us through the bits that weren’t gallery information and made sure we understood. We were expected to follow through the rest during our gallery time and bring them to staff for marking.

This museum had more than 100 volunteers and won awards for their volunteer programs so not every museum has, or needs, that type of volunteer training. However, you can take the orientation, which included fire safety and evacuation, to discuss accessible evacuations and how they differ.

All of the museums that I have worked in have training days were staff lead ‘classes’ or ‘workshops’ on various topics ranging from what’s available in the shop to preventative conservation to customer care and more. Folding evacuation training into such a training day would be an excellent way to ensure that staff and volunteers know your procedure.

The point of this is to ensure that your volunteers and staff get the training that they need.

Become a Patron!

Resources

As most of the research you will need to do is folded into the first half of this, there are very few resources for me to give you here.

Museologist Notes 8: Accessible Evacuation

I recommend speaking to your regular sign makers.

Keep in contact and follow through with your consultants.