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Legislations
and Standards
Quality
assured to BSEN ISO 9002:1994
Accord
Lift Services keep abreast of changes in standards and legislation
etc by membership and subscription to the following organisations:
1. The Lift and Escalator Industry Association.
2.
The Health & Safety Executive.
3. The British Standards Institute.
4. Elevation (Trade magazine).
5. Local Chambers of Commerce.
The Disability
Discrimination Act 1995
The following
information is a broad introduction to the relevant points
of the Disability Discrimination Act and associated standards
specifically relative to lifts.
Overview
There
are approximately 8.5 million disabled people in Britain (13%
of the total population).
Discrimination is classified as follows:
Ø When a person is treated less favourably than someone
else.
Ø When a particular treatment is for a reason relating
to a persons disability.
Ø When there is a failure to make reasonable adjustment
to accommodate the disabled person.
References
The Disability
Discrimination Act 1995
Part 1
Introduced in 1995 to create awareness.
Part 2
Introduced in 1995, from December 1996 it was illegal to discriminate
against a disabled person in employment.
Part 3
Stage 1: Introduced in December 1996. It became unlawful for
service providers to
refuse to serve a disabled person or offer a lower standard
of service.
Stage
2: Introduced in October 1999. From this date service providers
had a duty to make
reasonable adjustments, under section 21 of the act.
Stage
3: From 1st October 2004 service providers will have to make
reasonable
adjustments to their premises to overcome the physical barriers
in relation to
access.
British
Standard 8300: 2001
This Standard
explains how the environment can be designed to anticipate
and overcome the restrictions that prevent disabled people
making full use of the premises and surroundings.
It covers
a wide range of impairments and is applicable to residents,
visitors, customers, employees or participants in sports events,
performances and conferences, and gives recommendations for
the design of new buildings and improvement of existing buildings.
Applicable
premises:
Transport
and industrial buildings
Administrative and commercial buildings
Health and welfare buildings
Refreshment, entertainment and recreational buildings
Religious buildings
Educational, cultural and scientific buildings
Dwellings and other residential buildings
Multi
storey buildings should have at least one lift that fully
meets the requirements of wheelchair users (refer to the checklist
below), and people with mobility difficulties.
A conventional
passenger lift is the preferred option but where access is
not possible alternative methods may be used.
British
Standard prEN81-70
This standard
was prepared by representatives of the European Disability
Forum, The National Standardisation Institute and The Lift
Industry to combat discrimination of the disabled and elderly
with regard to access. It will be adopted as a harmonised
European standard in due course. It accommodates a range of
disabilities such as:
Ø Impaired mobility
Ø Impaired endurance
Ø Impaired vision
Ø Impaired hearing
Ø Impaired Speech
Learning difficulties
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