Emergency Management and Campus Mapping
An experiment in process and design at the University of Illinois at Chicago
Project Goal
Design a wayfinding tool to improve the safety and accessibility for UIC's 1600 + students, faculty and staff with disabilities
Problem Statement
In recognition of the varied population UIC’s Office of Planning, Sustainability, and Project Management have produced maps to improve mobility and physical access for people with disabilities. There is, however, a gap in present services. While the Office of Preparedness and Response has designated Areas of Rescue Assistance for people trapped in buildings (Office of Preparedness and Response, 2021), there is no centralized, publicly accessible map or database of such locations. In conversations with members of the Chancellor’s Committee on the Status of Persons with Disabilities at UIC and formal interviews, there was little practical experience finding or utilizing emergency assets. There is no publicly available documentation on how people with disabilities are to reach Evacuation Assembly Areas.
Project Scope
UIC’s Emergency Management assets span across a campus interior totaling 16,007,783 Gross Square Footage (GSF). For this semester-long project, Student Center East was chosen as the test site for an interactive map of Emergency Management assets. While the campus is rich with Emergency Management tools like Automated External Defibrillators, Fire Alarms, Fire Extinguishers, and storm refuge areas, this project only maps stairways, Emergency Assembly Areas (EAA), and Emergency Action Plans (EAP). This project has 3 main phases consisting of 1) research 2) map production and 3) analysis.
Research
Map Production
Analysis
Literature Review
Interview Stakeholders
Collect data files
Select variables
Site visit
Design data base
Collect feedback from stakeholders
Identify future research