The future tall buildings belongs to building owners who see the need to adopt new solutions to provide equal access as well as equal egress for building occupants and their visitors. Such solutions would give the people with physical disabilities the same ability that ablebodied people have for vertical exits during emergency evacuation. Following the World Trade Centre Plaza incidents in New York City, it has become evident that even though tall buildings are designed for the ‘defend in place’ strategy, people must still be able to evacuate quickly in case of extreme emergency. Currently, the stairway is the only way out of a tall building during evacuation. In an ageing community, the general population in a high rise has approximately 30 per cent of building occupants with some degree of disadvantage regarding the use of stairs to get down to the ground. The lack of emergency egress provision for this segment of society in the event ofhigh rise evacuation continues to be an ethical issue.