The rules quoted here come from two documents, both retrieved on October 1, 2026. The EEOC's technical assistance: Obtaining and Using Employee Medical Information as Part of Emergency Evacuation Procedures (EEOC-NVTA-2001-1, issued October 31, 2001). Its disclaimer says its contents “do not have the force and effect of law and are not meant to bind the public in any way,” and a notice at the top says it “was issued prior to enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA),” which took effect on January 1, 2009. The statute: 42 U.S.C. §12112 (United States Code, 2024 Edition). Nothing here tells you that your evacuation plan, or any form or list in it, complies with the ADA or with any other law. For what the ADA requires of your organization, check with an employment lawyer. For fire codes, building codes and workplace-safety rules, which this article does not cover, check with your local fire authority or OSHA. Innovative Placements is a connector — we help people with disabilities find work in Western New York — and we are not lawyers or a government agency.
This article is published on the first day of October, the month the U.S. Department of Labor marks as National Disability Employment Awareness Month. “In October 2026, we celebrate National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM),” the Department's page says, and among its ideas for employers is this one: “NDEAM is a timely opportunity to review your company's policies and ensure that they convey a commitment to an accessible workplace culture.” This article takes up that suggestion for one policy.
The policy is the evacuation plan. For current employees, the ADA's general rule is a limit: a covered employer “shall not make inquiries of an employee as to whether such employee is an individual with a disability or as to the nature or severity of the disability,” unless the inquiry is shown to be job-related and consistent with business necessity. On evacuation planning, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has published a technical assistance document, four questions and answers long, and its starting point is plain: “federal disability discrimination laws do not prevent employers from obtaining and appropriately using information necessary for a comprehensive emergency evacuation plan.” Two words carry that sentence, appropriately and necessary, and the rest of this article is about what they mean in practice.
What the Commission Says You May Ask
The document's first question is whether an employer may ask at all. The answer is yes, with the reason attached:
“Some employees may need assistance because of medical conditions that are not visually apparent. Others may have obvious disabilities or medical conditions but may not need assistance. Employers, therefore, are allowed to ask employees to self-identify if they will require assistance because of a disability or medical condition.”
Both halves of the reason point the same way. Some needs cannot be seen, so an employer cannot plan by looking. Some disabilities can be seen and come with no need for help at all, so an employer cannot plan by assuming either. What is left is asking, and the document's word for the answer is self-identify: the employee is the one who says whether they will need help.
Three Ways to Ask
The second answer lists how an employer may get the information. There are three ways:
“After making a job offer, but before employment begins, an employer may ask all individuals whether they will need assistance during an emergency.”
“An employer also may periodically survey all of its current employees to determine whether they will require assistance in an emergency, as long as the employer makes it clear that self-identification is voluntary and explains the purpose for requesting the information.”
“Finally, whether an employer periodically surveys all employees or not, it may ask employees with known disabilities if they will require assistance in the event of an emergency.”
Notice the word all in the first two: every new hire is asked after the offer, and every current employee is surveyed, so nobody is singled out by being asked. The survey carries two conditions of its own: answering is voluntary, and the employer explains why it is asking. Only the third way is aimed at particular people, and the document attaches a warning to it.
None of the three comes before a job offer. What an employer may ask at each stage more generally is covered in ADA basics for small employers. For new hires, the question belongs between the offer and the first day, the part of onboarding that our manager's onboarding checklist calls the most important.
The Person Is the Expert
Here is that warning, and the sentence this article is built around:
“An employer should not assume, however, that everyone with an obvious disability will need assistance during an evacuation. For example, many individuals who are blind may prefer to walk down stairs unassisted. People with disabilities are generally in the best position to assess their particular needs.”
That last sentence decides who writes the plan. A plan written for employees with disabilities, by someone guessing at what they need, can assign help nobody wanted and miss help somebody needed. A plan built with them starts from what each person says about their own situation. The document's example is the whole argument in miniature: an employer looking at an employee who is blind might pencil in an escort for the stairs, and the employee might prefer to walk down alone.
Building it with the person means asking, taking the answer seriously, and agreeing the details together: who will help, if anyone, and with what. And since the document describes surveying current employees periodically, each survey is a chance to revisit the plan with them.
Ask About the Help, Not the Diagnosis
Once someone says they will need help, the document's third answer allows a second question:
“An employer may ask individuals who indicate a need for assistance because of a medical condition to describe the type of assistance they think will be needed. One way that this can be done is by giving all employees a memo with an attached form requesting information. The employer also may have a follow-up conversation with an individual when necessary to obtain more detailed information.”
Its examples of what is worth knowing are practical ones: whether someone who uses a wheelchair “is able to walk independently, with or without the use of crutches or a cane, in an emergency situation,” and whether a person will need “any special medication, equipment, or device.” Then it draws the limit:
“Of course, an employer is entitled only to the information necessary for it to be prepared to provide assistance. This means that, in most instances, it will be unnecessary for an employer to know the details of an individual's medical condition.”
That is necessary again, and it settles what the form is for: whether you will need help, what kind, and what has to come with you, not what your condition is. A follow-up conversation stays on the same subject. Keep the document's own hedge, in most instances, as well: the default is no diagnosis, and anything beyond the help has to be needed in order to give the help.
What You Promise When You Ask
The second answer, the one with the three ways, ends with what to tell people at the moment of asking:
“An employer should inform all individuals who are asked about their need for emergency assistance that the information they provide will be kept confidential and shared only with those who have responsibilities under the emergency evacuation plan.”
Put that promise, or your own version of it, on the form itself, so the person answering knows who will see the answer before they give it. Once the forms come back, they are medical information like any other, and where that has to be kept is set out in Where the Medical Information Has to Live; this article does not repeat it.
Who Gets Told
The promise rests on the statute. In the document's words, the ADA's confidentiality provisions “include an exception that allows an employer to share medical information with first aid and safety personnel.” The statute's own wording of that exception is short:
“first aid and safety personnel may be informed, when appropriate, if the disability might require emergency treatment”
The statute writes that exception into its paragraph on medical examinations after a job offer, and subparagraph (d)(4)(C) applies the same requirements to medical information obtained from current employees through voluntary medical examinations and histories that are part of an employee health program, and through inquiries into their ability to perform job-related functions. The document then says whom it reads the exception to reach:
“This exception would allow an employer to share information about the type of assistance an individual needs in the event of an evacuation with medical professionals, emergency coordinators, floor captains, colleagues who have volunteered to act as ‘buddies,’ building security officers who need to confirm that everyone has been evacuated, and other non-medical personnel who are responsible for ensuring safe evacuation. These individuals are entitled to the information necessary to fulfill their responsibilities under the employer's emergency evacuation plan.”
Three things in that answer. The list is the Commission's reading. The statute says “first aid and safety personnel,” and it is the guidance that reads those words to include a floor captain or a colleague who volunteered as a buddy. What is shared is the help, not the file: “information about the type of assistance an individual needs.” And each person gets their own part. Everyone on the list is entitled to what their own responsibilities require, so the volunteer who walks out with a colleague needs to know who and how, and the security officer confirming that everyone is out needs to know whom to look for. Neither needs the whole form.
Checking Your Plan Against the Document
If you are reviewing your plan, here are the document's points turned into questions. Each is a question about your plan, not a verdict on it.
1. If you ask new hires, does every one get the same question, after the offer and before the first day?
2. If you survey staff, does the survey go to everyone, and does it say that answering is voluntary and what the answers are for?
3. Where you know of a disability, do you ask the person rather than assume?
4. Does the form ask what help is needed, and not what the condition is?
5. Does it say the answers are confidential and go only to those with responsibilities under the plan?
6. Have you named those people, and does each get only what their role needs?
7. Was each person's part agreed with them, and are the forms kept with your other confidential medical records?
The Honest Summary
Claiming: that the EEOC's technical assistance on evacuation says employers may ask employees to self-identify if they will need help because of a disability or medical condition; that it gives three ways to ask, none of them before a job offer; that an employer is entitled only to the information needed to be prepared to help, which in most instances excludes the details of a medical condition; that people who are asked should be told their answers are confidential and shared only with those who have responsibilities under the plan; and that the Commission reads the statute's exception for first aid and safety personnel to reach the people who carry the plan out.
Not claiming: that your plan, your form or your list of who is told complies with the ADA or with any other law; anything about fire codes, building codes or OSHA's rules, which this article does not describe; or how New York State law treats any of this. The document predates the ADA Amendments Act of 2008 and says its contents are not meant to bind the public. Questions about the ADA belong with an employment lawyer, and questions about fire safety and building rules with your local fire authority or OSHA.
Where to Take It
If an answer on a form turns into a request for an accommodation in the job itself, that is a separate conversation with rules of its own, and choosing among effective accommodations is where to start. For which ADA rules reach a smaller employer at all, ADA basics for small employers. And when you are hiring, finding candidates who fit the job is what we do.
The technical assistance is the EEOC's Obtaining and Using Employee Medical Information as Part of Emergency Evacuation Procedures (EEOC-NVTA-2001-1, issue date 10-31-2001), which the page describes as a technical assistance document issued upon approval of the Commission's Chair. It carries the disclaimer and the notice about the ADA Amendments Act of 2008 quoted above, and no notice of rescission or revision when we read it. The statute is 42 U.S.C. §12112 in the United States Code, 2024 Edition, on govinfo.gov; the parts used here are (d)(3)(B)(ii), (d)(4)(A) and (d)(4)(C). The Department of Labor's words are from its National Disability Employment Awareness Month page. All three were retrieved on October 1, 2026. Laws and guidance change; if this article ever disagrees with the current text of any of them, trust the current text and tell us.