From Accessible Toilets To Disabled Access Lifts: 5 Ways To Make Your Business Wheelchair Friendly

Thankfully, in recent years, positive steps have been made to make the world a far more inclusive and accessible place for people with disabilities. Across Europe, in cities like Berlin and Barcelona, efforts have been made to ensure everyone has access to tourist destinations and is able to get around the city. In Barcelona, the city beach has wheelchair accessible walkways and throughout Berlin the pavements and public transport have been made easy to navigate for people with wheelchairs.

Although positive change is now being made with much more frequency, there are still many barriers. A number of cities across the world are recognising the economic and social benefits of making urban planning more accessible, but here in the UK, nearly a quarter of lifts and escalators are still inadequate.

The Equality Act 2010 puts an onus on businesses and organisations to make adjustments and changes where necessary to ensure that they are accessible for people with wheelchairs. This covers places of education, employment, housing, shops and hospitals as well as private clubs. These adjustments only need to be completed if they’re deemed ‘reasonable’ and would help a person to overcome the disadvantage they’re experiencing from their disability.

There are a number of parameters that determine whether this is a necessity, however, if you’re a business, it’s worth getting an upper hand by making your commercial property more accessible. Not only will this help your disabled staff, but it shows that you’re an open and inclusive place to work. Here we provide a short guide and five tips on how to make your business more wheelchair accessible.

Install a Wheelchair Lift or a Stairlift

One of the most important issues when it comes to accessibility in the workplace is ensuring that disabled people can get up and down the various floors of the office with ease. You might think “well, we have a lift”, however, not all lifts are created equally and simply having a lift does not mean that it is accessible for those with disabilities. The doors of an accessible lift must stay open long enough for a wheelchair user to get in and wide enough for the wheelchair to fit.

However, it’s likely that you’ll also have to install a separate disability access lift to help wheelchair users get up any external staircases or anywhere that isn’t accessible via a suitable elevator. There are three main types of wheelchair accessible lifts to choose from. The first and most popular choice of these three, is what’s known as a platform lift. These lifts move wheelchair users vertically up to the height of an adjacent staircase and onto the upper platform. This style of lift is incredibly easy for the user to operate; all that needs to be done is to wheel onto the platform and use a button to activate the lift. From there, the lift will automatically shut and transport the user up to the next level. These lifts are a versatile choice and suitable for the home or an office.

More advanced than a platform lift, retracting lifts are great if you don’t want to drastically amend the appearance of your stairs but still make them accessible. These lifts operate by retracting the stairs into the wall at the push of a button and then raising a platform from the floor to get to the upper level. However, these are only suitable for relatively small staircases.

The final style of disabled access lift you could choose is an incline lift. Working in a similar way to stair lifts, these lifts transport wheelchair users diagonally up a staircase and can be easily folded away to save space once it’s been used. Again, this style of lift is most suitable for smaller staircases.

Automated Doors, Ramps and Designated Areas

In a similar vein to ensuring you have the right lifts for people with disabilities, it’s also important to provide the correct ramps, automated doors and designated areas. Installing automated doors and ramps throughout your commercial property gives people with disabilities the independence to access every room throughout the office without having to wait for assistance.

For communal areas, like the workplace canteen, you should ensure that all walkways and thoroughfares are wide enough to fit a wheelchair down and that there is room for wheelchair users to find a place to eat their lunch. As well as inside the office, providing disabled parking is another must to make sure your organisation is fully accessible.

Train Employees On Communication

Unlike the previous structural amendments you can take to make sure your organisation is sensitive to the needs of disabled people, training sessions for your team members on how to communicate with customers and colleagues who have disabilities is a great way to ensure that the disability-friendly culture courses right through the business.

Running training courses on how to communicate with people with all types of disabilities, from wheelchair users through to blindness, will help prepare members of staff who might be very considerate and helpful people but want to make absolutely sure they are in no danger of offending anyone. Rather than assuming that your staff will know, it’s best to provide them with all of the tools they need.

Install Disabled Facilities and Signage

An obvious addition, and required under the Equality Act 2010, are accessible to toilets for disabled people. If there isn’t one already in the office, it’s important to have one installed as a priority and ensure it is clearly signed as such. Accessible toilets must also have an emergency alarm, the doors must be wide enough, have sinks with lever taps, support rails and a paddle flush to make it easy to use.

In terms of the signs, changes you can make here include making all fonts larger, placing them lower down the wall, using braille and using language like ‘accessible’ rather than disabled toilets to ensure you’re being respectful.

Consult With and Support Staff

To find out exactly how you can improve as a business, why not set up quarterly or six-monthly meetings with the members of staff who are disabled to find out how you can continue to make the office more accessible? This provides those members of staff with an active voice in the development of the business and shows your willingness to change and adapt with them in mind. It might be an idea to also consult with industry professionals to ensure you’re doing everything you possibly can to make your disabled staff’s life as easy as possible whilst at work.

Once you’ve received the feedback from your staff, make sure that you try and enact as much as feasibly possible. There may be some things beyond the realms of possibility, but it’s important to try and implement as much as you can.

Make Your Business More Wheelchair-Friendly By Installing a Wheelchair Lift in Scotland

At ADL Services, we have over eight decades worth of experience within our team of expert lift professionals. Located in Motherwell, we service commercial clients in the town as well as across Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen, as well as developing business relationships with the region’s local authorities.

Our main concern is to ensure that all of our customers are happy with our work, which is why we always meet our delivery and installation deadlines, are fully accredited and offer a 24/7, 365 day a year emergency cover and repair service.

Whether you are looking for a wheelchair lift for home or a chairlift to help with mobility, we can help. If you’re a business, we can also assist you in making sure you’re wheelchair friendly.

To find out more, contact us . You can find us at either of our three Motherwell, Aberdeen and Glasgow offices, call us on 01698 277 009 or email us at info@adlliftservices.com.