Emergency Evacuation Planning Guide For People with Disabilities

Cognitive Disabilities

A cognitive disability prevents a person from using or accessing building features due to an inability to process or understand the information necessary to use those features.

Cognitive disabilities can be caused by a wide range of conditions, including, but not limited to, developmental disabilities, multiple sclerosis, depression, alcoholism, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, traumatic brain injury, chronic fatigue syndrome, stroke, and some psychiatric conditions, but all result in some decreased or impaired level in the ability to process or understand the information received by the senses.

All standard building egress systems require a person to be able to process and understand information in order to safely evacuate a building.