Toward the Characterization of Building Occupancies for Fire Safety Engineering: Prevalence, Type, and Mobility of Disabled People

This paper is the first in a series of four that collectively provide a substantial body of knowledge on the egress capabilities of disabled people who frequent public-assembly buildings. Here, the results are given of an analysis of survey data estimating the numbers and types of disabled people who are mobile beyond their own homes, the degree of assistance they require, the percentage of the total mobile population they constitute, and the extent to which they are involved in sports and leisure pursuits. This information can be used to derive working estimates of the prevalence and nature of disability among building populations when characterizing building occupancies, a prerequisite to fire engineering.