1. When is a fire alarm not a fire alarm?

2. Meet Pete
Who I am, what I do.

3. Guess who
which one is hearing impaired?

4. One of the Usual Suspects probably couldn’t hear Benicio del Toro.

5. 1 in 5 is a LOT of people
Over 11 million people in the UK

6. When a tree falls in a lonely forest, and no animal is nearby to hear it, does it make a sound?

7. If a fire alarm goes off and no-one can hear it, is it still a fire alarm?

9. Real life examples of inappropriate measures
“Oh, we’ll wait until the fire brigade come and evacuate anyone with a hearing impairment”

10. “We have REALLY loud fire alarms”

11. ?!
“We ask deaf guests to leave their bedroom doors open at night in case we need to evacuate them”

13. What they mean is...
We didn’t do anything.

14. Fiona’s story Hotel did not offer any accessible fire alarms
Staff ran into her room shouting “fire!”
Shouting proved surprisingly ineffective for waking deaf people
Fiona wasn’t evacuated
Parents worried she was dead
Staff said everyone was accounted for
Woke up surrounded by hotel staff and worried parents
Probably going to use a different hotel next time

15. The law specifically addresses this area

17. Equality act requires provisions as a standard rather than reactively

18. Wheelchair access 800,000 regular wheelchair users in the UK
Businesses provide ramps before they know individuals with wheelchairs need them, they just assume they will.
If they don’t they are excluding people and someone is likely to get very annoyed.

19. 11 Million people with hearing impairment
Businesses do nothing until someone asks
Customers get very annoyed because they have been excluded

20. Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order / Fire Scotland Act
Risk assessments must include the specific needs of disabled people. You need to consider how people with all disabilities will know the fire alarm has activated and then how they will be able to evacuate the building

21. Taking proper precautions will also help to comply with:

22. Practical solutions

23. PEEPs and Buddy systems

24. Visual alert devices

25. Mass notification

26. Deaf awareness training
Ruthy Fletcher - Deaf awareness trainer

27. Tactile alarms

28. Come and have a chat
Pete Davies
@That_Fireco_Guy