Platform lifts for people with disabilities

Platform lifts for people with disabilities: what to look out for

The most common obstacle is not a whole floor but three or four steps at the entrance. A ramp with a code-compliant gradient for that height turns out long, and in a cramped courtyard there is simply nowhere to put it. A vertical platform lift takes up about as much space as an entrance vestibule, lifts a wheelchair user from pavement level to the entrance floor and does not take away any width from the stair flight. The rated load of such platforms is 250-400 kg, that is, a wheelchair with its user and, if necessary, an assistant.

An inclined stair lift runs on a guide rail along the flight - the rail is fixed to the wall, to the stairs on posts or to the floor, and the platform folds up against the rail when not in use. This is essential: the flight is an escape route and its width must not be reduced. Hold-to-run control is not a whim either: release the button and the platform stops. The safety features work the same way: the fold-down ramps at the ends rise before travel and act as barriers, and a sensor under the platform stops it as soon as an obstacle appears below.

The speed is 0.15 m/s, and this is worth discussing with the client in advance: a three-metre rise takes about twenty seconds. The platform is designed for occasional trips, not a constant flow of users. It does not replace a lift and is not meant to - its job is to remove a specific barrier in a specific place.

The worst thing we see on sites is a platform installed for the sake of a report and locked with a key that no one can find. Equipment that is neither used nor maintained is the first to fail: the emergency lowering battery runs down, the limit switches corrode, the drive rusts. That is why the contract should state from the outset who is responsible for access to the platform and for scheduled inspections.

Here is what is already in service on our sites. At a polyclinic in Drohobych we reconstructed the passages and installed both vertical and inclined platform lifts there. A residential building in Dolyna has a passenger platform lift with automatic doors. At a monastery in Ivano-Frankivsk, a vertical platform lift was installed in an existing building without a deep pit. At the Lviv Academy of Arts on Kubiiovycha Street, a platform lift for people with special needs was added under a separate procurement after the lift. And in Chernivtsi, the Regional State Administration building, a listed heritage building, was made accessible with an external lift, because cutting a shaft inside was not allowed.