Wheelchair Access

Chulmleigh Community College, Devon When this College was chosen as the site for the development of a typical “classroom of the future” the planners needed to identify a solution for disabled access over short to medium rise steps and the result was a Sesame which was able to reach a height of 1.75m. Although it presented a new challenge this was met by some strategic redesign and the Sesame is an integral part of what is envisaged for education facilities in the future. When the children first saw the Sesame in action they were amazed that their stairs moved, they had not realised they had been running up and down a wheelchair lift! By law a platform lift that rises over 500mm must have a gate or barrier at the top level and a platform lift that rises above 1000mm must be enclosed on all 4 sides. This installation had a total rise of 1400mm. You will notice that the customer opted for a glass enclosure on the platform lift with swinging gates rather than our rising barrier option. Here you can see a stainless steel skirt surrounding the working parts of the platform lift, possible when the site has enough room below the lift to dig a pit. The pit depth must be the total rise of the lift plus 200mm for the lift itself, therefore the pit depth for this site was 1600mm. Our roller shutter blind option only requires a pit depth of 200mm.