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23 Conclusions Analysis of the data led to five major conclusions: 1. Airports are becoming more involved in integrating DAFN in emergency planning and exercises. 2. Participants report that airports, airlines, and agencies need to be clear on their respon- sibilities toward passengers in each type of emergency and at each stage of their passage through an airport, and realistic emergency exercises can test this clarity. 3. A disabilities advisory committee can benefit an airportâs emergency exercises, planning, and general operations and facility design. A smaller airport may wish to use the surround- ing communityâs (city or county) disabilities advisory committee. 4. Airport emergency drills are more realistic when the DAFN community participates. Persons with actual disabilities and others with access and functional needs should participate in the planning for and actual execution of emergency exercises and drills. This includes serving as observers and participating in hot washes (informal immediate post-exercise reviews) and AARs. 5. Evacuation times may not accurately be estimated between exercises and real-life emer- gencies due to the actual needs of the DAFN community. C H A P T E R 4 Conclusions and Further Research Source: Lisa LeBlanc-Hutchings. Passengers in departure lounge at Southwest Florida International Airport.
24 Incorporating ADA and Functional Needs in Emergency Exercises In addition, there are 11 other conclusions: 1. Ensuring that wheelchair service providers are fully trained and involved in emergency response is challenging. 2. Airports can benefit from having their ADA emergency plans and exercises identical to or at least closely coordinated with surrounding jurisdictions. This reduces confusion, reduces the need for separate public education activities, simplifies training, and enhances mutual aid potentialities. 3. Having able-bodied victims simulate DAFN persons is insufficient to reveal flaws in plans and procedures. 4. Everyone who works in an airport needs a clear role and training for that role in response and recovery to different types of emergencies. This is critically important during evacua- tion or sheltering in place. 5. Training is needed on how to properly assist the DAFN persons in an emergency, especially in an evacuation or sheltering in place. 6. AEPs should include individual [medical] emergencies and how the response to them will take place during normal situations and during more general emergencies. 7. Not all disabilities are visible. Airports need to be prepared to deal with cognitive dis- abilities and with access and functional needs (AFNs) that may become accentuated during emergencies. 8. The role of ADA coordinator appears to be insufficiently defined, and this issue is more acute when DAFN is considered. 9. The main focus is on mobility issues, service animals, and autism. Cognitive disabilities other than autism get far less attention as do co-disabilities (e.g., a person with both visual and hearing disabilities). 10. Evacuation times may not be estimated accurately between exercises and real-life emergencies due to the actual needs of the DAFN community. 11. During the literature review for this synthesis, very few directly pertinent training and edu- cational materials were found. This is a significant gap that will impede efforts to implement DAFN-inclusive emergency training and exercise programs. Further Research In addition, six topics for further research that could be beneficial were identified: 1. Defining the roles of airport ADA coordinators. Many of the ADA coordinators commented on uncertainties about the roles and requirements expected of their position. This appeared to be true regardless of airport size, but the uncertainty may be more consequential at smaller airports where ADA coordination is a collateral or secondary duty. The lack of a consistent definition of DAFN among the various agencies contributes to this uncertainty. 2. Establishing the means to work with teams of humans and their service animal partners. Persons using service animals do better in emergencies when they and their animal partner are treated as a unit and are not unnecessarily separated. Some airports indicated that they would respond separately to humans and to their service animals while others indicated awareness of the need to treat them as a unit. In addition, there is a special need to educate service animal handlers and to train their animals not to resist instructions to evacuate in an emergency. 3. Determining the effects of the sensory environment in terminals on DAFN persons during evacuations. This came up in the interview with Manchester International Airport in con- nection with the multiple sensory distractions of the duty-free shops in the terminals and how they affected autistic passengers during terminal evacuations. Ways to assist persons with cognitive disabilities navigate these sorts of environments need to be investigated.
Conclusions and Further Research 25 4. Integrating airport emergency management into regional emer- gency management. This approach was mentioned by a handful of U.S. airports but is the standard in the E.C. The advantage would be the synergies derived from having all emergency training and public education be consistent for the communities inside and outside the airport. 5. Exploring the feasibility of making skycaps and wheelchair ser- vice providers common use. A very small number of U.S. airports contract directly with wheelchair service providers and provide the service as a common use to all airlines at the airport. This may be one approach to establishing training and exercise participation by wheelchair service providers. 6. Developing targeted training and educational materials for air- port stakeholders for working with the DAFN community. Who is the DAFN member in this planning meeting at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport? Are all disabilities visible? Source: Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport/Metropolitan Airports Commission. The Bottom Line âIn the world of emergency manage- ment, we plan, we train, and then we exercise. Planning, training, and exercis- ing are all made more effective when persons with disabilities and others with access and functional needs are included in all parts of the process.â âKristin Rollwagen, Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport
