Factors affecting evacuation in intellectually disabled children: An experimental study

Children with intellectual disabilities are considered a vulnerable group in evacuations during emergencies, yet their evacuation needs have not received sufficient attention. To bridge this gap, this study provides one of the very few experimental analyses of the evacuation of intellectually disabled children. Therefore, this study aimed to gather unique evacuation data for intellectually disabled children and identify factors influencing their evacuation process. Two evacuation experiments were conducted on 49 intellectually disabled children aged 7 to 16 from a special education school. Data collected through video recordings include recognition time, response time, pre-movement time, indoor travel speed, horizontal travel speed, and vertical travel speed. This study explored whether and how several key factors (e.g., drill announcement status, sex, age, floor level, and students' dependency behavior) affect the evacuation of intellectually disabled children. Results indicate that drill announcement status significantly affected the recognition time and pre-movement time in intellectually disabled children but did not impact their response time or travel speed. The floor level on which children were located significantly influenced their evacuation process, with children on higher floors showing longer response and pre-movement time and slower indoor travel speed and horizontal travel speed compared to those on the first floor. Additionally, the dependency behavior of these children on teachers significantly influenced their recognition time. Moreover, this dependency behavior tended to be prevalent among intellectually disabled children during emergency evacuations. These findings provide valuable insights for the design of educational buildings tailored to the needs of special populations, evacuation simulation modeling, and the development of building regulations.