Bilingual evacuation mapsMapas de evacuación bilingües
Choose Bilingual and every word we add to your floor plan prints in both languages: EXIT over SALIDA, YOU ARE HERE over USTED ESTÁ AQUÍ, plus a two-language legend and assembly point. Room names stay exactly as you wrote them.
5 free floor-plan uploads per month with a free account, no credit card. Every map is a draft to check on site before you post it.
Why a second languagePor qué en dos idiomas
No federal OSHA rule says an evacuation map has to be printed in Spanish. What OSHA does insist on is that training is understood. Its 2010 policy statement on training covers general industry, construction, maritime and agriculture, and it is quoted on the right.
The same memo says that employers who usually give work instructions in Spanish (the foreman explains the job in Spanish, the morning tailgate talk happens in Spanish) should expect to give safety and health training the same way. Inspectors are told to look at how instructions are really given on your site, not only at the paperwork.
Your emergency action plan has to describe how people evacuate and which exit routes they use (29 CFR 1910.38(c)(2)), and 1910.38(f) has you go over the plan with each employee at three points: when they start or the plan is first written, when their part in it changes, and when the plan changes. Construction companies find the same review points in 29 CFR 1926.35(e)(2). The map is what you point at during that conversation, and it works better when its words are in the language the crew works in.
Companies with 10 or fewer employees may give the plan to the crew verbally rather than writing it down (29 CFR 1910.38(b); in construction, 1926.35(e)(3)). For those crews the posted map is often the only written piece they ever see, so print it in the words they use.
“An employer must instruct its employees using both a language and vocabulary that the employees can understand.”
It is a visual aid, not training. OSHA’s memo also says that handing reading material to someone who can’t read is not training, so walk the routes with the crew and show everyone the meeting spot in person.
Your door signs stay as they are. Each exit must be “marked by a sign reading ‘Exit’” (29 CFR 1910.37(b)(2)). The map prints EXIT with SALIDA underneath so the sign and the map match.
What gets translatedQué se traduce
Picking a language changes the labels this site draws on your plan. It never rewrites what was already there.
Each marker keeps the size of its English word. On a bilingual map the English line sits on top and the Spanish line underneath, inside the same marker, so labels don’t grow into walls or cover routes.
Exits, routes, the star, the assembly point and equipment are placed the same way in all three languages. If a marker is so small that two lines would be unreadable, it shows the English word.
Spanish Only suits a crew where everyone reads Spanish. Bilingual is the safer pick for a mixed crew, or when an inspector who reads only English will look at the map.
Make yoursHaga el suyo
Bilingual (English + Spanish) is already picked in the Map Language menu below. Upload a floor plan, a photo of one or a hand sketch, or describe the building in words. You can switch to Spanish only or English before you generate.
For the tradesPara los oficios
The map belongs on the wall of a building you keep, such as the shop, the yard office or the equipment barn, rather than on a job site that changes every week. A few things to mark for four trades:
Pallets of shingle bundles and ladder racks eat into the aisles a little more each week. Draw the walking path to the man door as well as the roll-up door, because a truck parked at the overhead door blocks that way out. Put the meeting spot across the lot from where trailers back in.
Fire escape plan for roofing companiesMower fuel, gas cans, fertilizer bags and weed killer often share one barn with the trailers. Show the extinguisher next to the fuel shelf and the second door at the back. Spring hires should walk the route during their first week, before the season gets busy.
Fire escape plan for lawn care companiesJob sites change every week, but the office, the tool shop and the laydown yard stay where they are, so map those first. A site trailer can start from a phone photo of a hand sketch. Make a fresh map when the trailer moves to the next job.
Fire escape plan for construction companiesBar oil, two-stroke fuel, the sharpening bench and a chipper bay mean the shop holds more fuel than it looks. Mark a way out at both ends of the bay, and keep the meeting spot well away from the log pile and the chip pile.
Fire escape plan for tree service companiesPlanning for several buildings? Construction evacuation maps covers offices, tool shops and site trailers across a whole company.
Step by stepPaso a paso
Add a floor plan, a phone photo of one, or a hand sketch. If you have nothing on paper, type the rooms and doors into the description box instead.
The Map Language menu on this page starts on Bilingual (English + Spanish). Pick Spanish Only when everybody who reads the map reads Spanish.
Carry the draft from room to room and confirm every exit, route, extinguisher and the assembly point. Fix anything in the editor; labels you add from its standard legend come out in both languages.
Print it as large as the wall allows, hang it where people pass every day, and explain it to the crew in the language they get their work instructions in.
Before you postAntes de colocarlo
Ask a bilingual lead to read the map out loud in Spanish. If they stop at a room name, rename that room the way the crew says it before you generate. We never translate room names, so “Storage” stays “Storage” unless you type “Bodega”.
Punto de reunión only helps if everyone pictures the same place. Choose a landmark such as the light pole at the lot entrance or the dumpster pad, and name it in both languages during the walk-through.
Bilingual labels stack two lines in the space one English word would use. Tabloid paper (11 × 17 inches) or bigger keeps both lines easy to read from a few steps back.
Your emergency plan needs an employee alarm with a distinctive signal (29 CFR 1910.38(d)). The map shows where to go; the crew also needs to know, in both languages, what the alarm sounds like and that it means leave now.
OSHA has you go over the plan with each new hire and again whenever the plan itself changes (29 CFR 1910.38(f)). Moved racks, a new door or a relocated fuel cabinet usually call for a new map as well, so the wall never shows last year’s layout.
QuestionsPreguntas frecuentes
Federal OSHA’s exit route and emergency action plan rules do not name a language for maps. OSHA’s 2010 training policy says employees must be instructed in a language and vocabulary they understand, so if your crew takes its work instructions in Spanish, give the evacuation review in Spanish as well. A bilingual map supports that review but does not replace it. State plans and local fire officials can set their own rules, so check with yours.
Only the words this site adds to your plan: EXIT, YOU ARE HERE, ASSEMBLY POINT, the legend, the map title, the review notes and the footer. Room names and any lettering from your own drawing stay exactly as you wrote them.
No. Exits, routes, the You Are Here star, the assembly point and equipment are placed the same way in English, Spanish and bilingual maps. Switching the language changes the words and nothing else.
Yes. Choose Spanish Only (Español) in the Map Language menu. It suits a crew where everyone reads Spanish; bilingual is the better pick when the crew is mixed or when an inspector who reads only English will look at the map.
No. Under 29 CFR 1910.37(b)(2) each exit is marked by a sign reading “Exit,” and that stays true. The bilingual map prints EXIT with SALIDA underneath so the crew links the sign on the door to the map on the wall. Ask your local fire official before adding or replacing signs.
No. Bilingual is a menu choice in the same map maker, priced the same as an English map. A free account, with no credit card, includes 5 free floor-plan uploads per month, with up to 5 regenerations per upload.
Yes. Reopening a saved map, editing it, downloading or printing it, and viewing it in 3D all keep the language you chose when you made it.
Not yet. The Map Language menu offers English, Spanish, and bilingual English and Spanish. Other languages stay off the menu until every word on the map, in the editor and in the downloads works in them.
Bilingual is preselected. Upload the plan, check the draft on site, then post it and walk it with the crew.
Un mapa que todo su equipo puede leer.
Related guidesGuías relacionadas
Sources checked October 11, 2026: OSHA training standards policy statement (April 28, 2010), 29 CFR 1910.37, 29 CFR 1910.38 and OSHA’s Spanish-language compliance assistance resources. This page is general guidance, not legal advice.
