Synthesis of Information Related to Airport Practices, Topic S04-19. Incorporating ADA and Functional Needs in Emergency Exercises

Airports use emergency exercises to train airport operators and emergency responders, as well as to maintain proficiency in their unique airport environment. Exercises evaluate groups’ abilities to prepare, respond, recover, communicate and work together to perform all roles necessary for successful emergency management. Many airports are innovative in their development of exercise scenarios and their exercising and evaluation programs. With many disabled passengers travel through airports, Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is important when considering emergency management scenarios. Some airports—DEN, LAX and RSW, for example—have innovative ways to include ADA advocates and representatives in the planning, execution, and evaluation of emergency training and exercises. There is no aspect of airport emergency management and exercising for an emergency that does not need to include permanently and temporarily disabled persons, their service animals, and their specialized equipment and supplies. The objective of this research is to compile existing resources, experiences and effective practices from airports that conduct emergency exercises that include scenarios that consider disabilities and collaboration with ADA advocates and their representatives. The audience for this synthesis of practice is airport operators, tenants and first responders. The research would include a literature review of existing documents and interviews of airport operators who conduct emergency exercises with disabled community participation. The researcher will collect data on effective practices from a minimum of 30 airports from a range of geographically distributed airport size classifications. Data collection will include: (1) effective practices and strategies for including disabled persons, their service animals, and their specialized equipment and supplies; (2) case examples; (3) participants, roles and responsibilities; (4) logistics, processes and tools; (5) creatively overcoming limited resources (costs, funding sources, lack of buy-in, leveraging resources); (6) challenges and work-arounds; (7) gaps and further research; and (8) examples of exercise materials such as checklists, templates, planning elements, hazard identification and risk assessment tools, evaluation criteria, and other relevant tools and considerations. The product of the research will be a concise report and appendices that include tools for incorporating ADA considerations into emergency exercises.

• Record URL:
  http://apps.trb.org/cmsfeed/TRBNetProjectDisplay.asp?ProjectID=4271
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Contract to a Performing Organization has not yet been awarded.

Language

• English

Project

• Funding: $45000
• Contract Numbers:

  Project 11-03, Topic S04-19

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Airport Cooperative Research Program

  Transportation Research Board
  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC    20001

  Federal Aviation Administration

  800 Independence Avenue, SW
  Washington, DC  United States  20591
• Project Managers:

  Staba, Gail

• Start Date: 20161027
• Expected Completion Date: 0
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• Source Data: RiP Project 41194

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Airport operations; Airports; Emergency management; Emergency training; Hazards; Risk assessment; Transportation disadvantaged persons
• Identifier Terms: Americans with Disabilities Act
• Subject Areas: Aviation; Education and Training; Safety and Human Factors; Security and Emergencies;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01615130
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Transportation Research Board
• Contract Numbers: Project 11-03, Topic S04-19
• Files: TRB, RiP
• Created Date: Oct 27 2016 1:00AM