Access and Functional Needs Planning: A Practical Checklist for Corporate and Campus Emergency Plans
An emergency operations plan is only effective if people can access its warnings, procedures, transportation, shelter, and support services. That is the purpose of access and functional needs planning: building practical provisions into emergency management systems so people can maintain safety, independence, communication, and access to essential services before, during, and after an incident.
For a corporation, this may involve employees, contractors, visitors, and customers. For a college or university, it may include students, faculty, staff, patients, visitors, and people living on campus. The planning process should address people who may need additional support with communication, transportation, supervision, medical care, maintaining independence, or other emergency functions.
The following checklist is designed for emergency managers, campus safety leads, human resources teams, and business continuity owners who are updating an existing emergency operations plan.
Planning note: This article provides general preparedness guidance, not legal advice. Organizations should review their plans against applicable federal, state, local, and institutional requirements.
Step 1: Assign ownership and define the scope
AFN provisions often fail when responsibility is spread across multiple departments without a clear owner. Begin by identifying who will coordinate the work and how it will be maintained.
Checklist
Assign an AFN or emergency accessibility lead.
Identify supporting departments, such as emergency management, campus safety, HR, facilities, security, occupational health, communications, information technology, transportation, and student services.
Add AFN responsibilities to the Emergency Operations Plan rather than leaving them in a separate document no one references.
Identify the incidents covered by the plan, including severe weather, fire, hazardous materials releases, active threats, public health emergencies, cyber incidents, utility failures, and prolonged business disruption.
Define how AFN considerations apply during notification, evacuation, shelter-in-place, relocation, sheltering, continuity, and recovery.
The FEMA Whole Community framework emphasizes that emergency planning should include the capabilities and needs of the entire community. For organizations, that means AFN planning should be integrated into normal emergency management processes, not treated as an optional add-on.
Step 2: Identify needs without creating a false sense of certainty
Organizations may need to understand who could require additional support during an emergency. However, identification must be handled carefully.
A voluntary employee, student, or occupant registry may help an organization plan assistance, but it should not be treated as a complete list. People may choose not to disclose a disability or medical need, may have temporary needs, or may not know in advance what support will be necessary.
Checklist
Determine whether a voluntary AFN notification or assistance process is appropriate for your organization.
Explain why information is being requested and how it will be used.
Collect only information necessary for emergency planning and response.
Store information securely and limit access to personnel with a legitimate operational need.
Establish retention, review, and deletion procedures.
Provide a way for people to update or withdraw information.
Avoid using registry information to restrict access, employment, enrollment, participation, or services.
Plan for people who are not registered or who need assistance unexpectedly.
Consult privacy, HR, legal, disability services, or student services professionals before implementation.
Where individual information is not available, plan by function instead of diagnosis. Ask what support may be needed: accessible communication, mobility assistance, transportation, power, medication continuity, supervision, or assistance maintaining independence.
Step 3: Build accessible warning and communication procedures
Emergency information must reach people quickly and in a format they can understand and use. A single communication channel is rarely sufficient.
Checklist
Use multiple alert channels, such as text messages, email, voice announcements, desktop alerts, public address systems, web updates, and other available notification tools.
Pair audible warnings with visual or text-based information where feasible.
Make emergency websites, forms, and digital messages usable with accessibility technologies.
Prepare plain-language messages for people who may have cognitive, intellectual, or developmental disabilities.
Provide captioning, transcripts, large-print materials, accessible digital documents, or other formats as needed.
Identify how people who are deaf, hard of hearing, blind, or have low vision will receive warnings and instructions.
Establish procedures for interpreters, relay services, or other communication support during extended incidents.
Include accessible communication in shelter, relocation, and recovery procedures, not only initial alerts.
Test messages with the people and groups expected to use them.
The ADA emergency planning guidance addresses accessible emergency communication, evacuation, transportation, and sheltering. Organizations should also review applicable requirements for their jurisdiction and type of operation.
A useful test is simple: Can someone receive the alert, understand what action is required, and complete that action without relying on a single sense or inaccessible system?
Step 4: Plan evacuation, transportation, and service-animal access
Evacuation procedures should account for both planned and no-notice events. A person may be able to evacuate independently under normal conditions but need a different route, assistance, or transportation when elevators, lighting, entrances, or transit systems are unavailable.
Checklist
Map accessible evacuation routes from occupied areas.
Identify areas of refuge or other interim procedures where appropriate.
Establish procedures for evacuating people who cannot use stairs or standard exits.
Identify trained personnel who may provide assistance.
Define how assistance will be requested and documented during an incident.
Confirm that evacuation vehicles can accommodate wheelchairs, mobility devices, service animals, and essential equipment.
Identify accessible loading zones and transportation staging areas.
Plan for traffic control, boarding assistance, and safe transfers.
Include procedures for visitors, contractors, patients, residents, or students who may not know the site.
Ensure service animals can remain with the people they assist during evacuation and transportation.
Do not assume that an accessible vehicle contract or transportation resource will be available simply because it appears on a contact list. Confirm availability, operating hours, dispatch procedures, equipment limitations, and backup options.
Step 5: Review sheltering and shelter-in-place provisions
A shelter or assembly area must be accessible in practice, not merely labeled accessible. Review the entire route and the services people will need once they arrive.
The FEMA guidance on integrating Functional Needs Support Services in general population shelters highlights the importance of providing access to services and supports in integrated shelter settings.
Checklist
Inspect entrances, routes, doors, elevators, and interior circulation areas.
Confirm accessible restrooms, showers, sleeping areas, eating areas, and information points.
Plan for people who need personal assistance with daily activities.
Provide accessible registration and reunification procedures.
Include service-animal access, relief areas, food, water, and waste-disposal supplies.
Identify quiet or lower-stimulation areas when feasible.
Plan for accessible shelter communications and repeated instructions.
Confirm how medications, medical supplies, and essential equipment will be managed.
Establish shelter-in-place procedures for people who cannot relocate immediately.
Reassess sites after construction, renovations, changes in occupancy, or changes in emergency use.
For corporate and campus settings, sheltering may occur in a conference center, residence hall, classroom building, gymnasium, clinic, or temporary facility. The plan should identify more than one option and explain how the organization will verify that a site remains usable during the incident.
Step 6: Address durable medical equipment and power-dependent needs
Some people rely on equipment that supports mobility, communication, respiratory function, medication storage, or daily independence. Losing access to that equipment can create an immediate safety issue.
Checklist
Identify common categories of durable medical equipment and assistive technology used in the organization.
Determine how wheelchairs, scooters, walkers, communication devices, oxygen equipment, ventilators, lifts, and similar equipment will remain with the user during evacuation or relocation.
Identify charging locations for powered mobility and communication devices.
Confirm the capacity and connection requirements of backup power systems.
Determine whether designated shelter or continuity areas can support power-dependent equipment.
Plan for temperature-sensitive medications and other storage requirements.
Establish procedures for prioritizing retrieval of essential equipment when conditions make retrieval unsafe.
Coordinate with facilities, health services, vendors, and emergency responders as appropriate.
Define when relocation to another site is necessary because equipment cannot be supported safely.
Avoid promising equipment or medical services that the organization has not verified. Document what is available, who activates it, and what alternatives exist if the primary resource fails.
Step 7: Clarify roles, training, and decision authority
AFN planning is not complete when procedures are written. People must know who activates them and how responsibilities transfer across shifts or departments.
Checklist
Assign AFN responsibilities within the incident management structure.
Identify primary and alternate personnel for emergency accessibility functions.
Train supervisors, floor wardens, residence-life staff, security, reception teams, shelter staff, and communications personnel.
Include effective communication and respectful assistance techniques in training.
Train staff on how to use evacuation equipment, accessible transportation procedures, and backup communication tools.
Ensure training materials, videos, forms, and exercises are accessible.
Define who coordinates with external transportation, shelter, medical, or public safety partners.
Establish escalation procedures when a requested accommodation cannot be provided immediately.
Include AFN responsibilities in onboarding and refresher training.
Training should emphasize asking people what assistance they need rather than making assumptions. Procedures must also respect individual choice, privacy, dignity, and independence.
Step 8: Test the plan and complete an after-action review
An AFN provision that has never been tested may not work under pressure. Exercises should include realistic complications, such as a power outage, inaccessible route, failed alert channel, unavailable elevator, transportation delay, or shelter relocation.
Checklist
Include AFN objectives in tabletop exercises, drills, and functional exercises.
Test accessible alerts through more than one channel.
Exercise evacuation and transportation procedures.
Include sheltering, service-animal, DME, and power-dependent scenarios.
Invite appropriate subject-matter experts and representatives of affected populations to help design or evaluate exercises.
Protect participants from being singled out or asked to disclose personal information unnecessarily.
Conduct a hot wash immediately after the exercise.
Document strengths, gaps, decisions, and unresolved questions.
Assign each corrective action an owner and target completion date.
Update the EOP, training, contact lists, contracts, and site procedures.
Retest important changes during a future exercise.
A useful after-action review asks:
What did the plan require?
What actually happened?
Where did participants experience delay or uncertainty?
Which resources or procedures worked?
What assumption proved inaccurate?
What must change before the next incident?
Use the findings to improve the system, not to assign blame. The goal is a plan that works for real people under real operating constraints.
Make access and functional needs planning part of plan maintenance
AFN planning should be reviewed whenever the organization changes buildings, staffing, technology, transportation contracts, shelter locations, operating hours, or critical services. It should also be revisited after exercises, incidents, complaints, accessibility reviews, and changes in applicable requirements.
A practical maintenance cycle is:
Assess: Identify functional needs, barriers, and dependencies.
Plan: Add procedures, resources, roles, and decision points to the EOP.
Train: Prepare the people responsible for implementation.
Exercise: Test the procedures under realistic conditions.
Improve: Track corrective actions and update the plan.
For organizations developing or strengthening inclusive emergency management capabilities, Alpha Research Group provides customized emergency management training solutions for corporate and academic audiences. Visit the resources page or contact Alpha Research Group to discuss training, continuity, crisis communications, and preparedness objectives.
Additional resources
Comments