Glynn,
Yes and interesting debate access v/s health & saftey so to
speak in fire egress situation. I'm not to comfortable with
these "safe" areas myself. My husband works on the 14 floor
of an Insurance Company building and is told, because he has
troubles wiht the stairs, to just wait on the fire egress stairs and
help will be sent. Well, they have fire drills every so often and
noone comes for him. When the Manchester bomb went off he
had to make his own way down then too. He has raise this with the
compnay several times and they have been "looking into it" now for
over 5 years.
As for the flexible pipework for changing surfaces.... there is a
company who does make kitchen units and surfaces which raise
and lower both manually and electrically. The main problem is they
are so expencive. If you are a disabled person who works it is so
difficult to recieve a house refurb. grant unless you make under
$8000.oo a year. This is a problem we have ran into, it is
expencive to be disabled and we live from pay check to pay ckeck
as it is, like most people, so to add the adaptation costs on top ....
well.... what can you do. :-) grow longer legs I guess. ;-)
Take care,
Jude
Date sent: Wed, 12 Jul 2000 12:31:20 +0100
Priority: normal
Subject: Re: access not accessible
From: "G.D.Williams" <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Send reply to: [log in to unmask]
Dear Judith,
Noted your broadcast request to invite responses to the above
scenario and as one who suffers from arthritis would quickly
become aware of unsuitable ' working planes' but would
suggest that if a flat was adapted to suit the particular needs
of an individual that their immediate needs would take priority
but ideally facilites could be duplicated if costly to achieve.
Maybe flexible piping and modular furniture that is height
adjustable might be possible given 21st C technology but
in practice difficult to achieve. However in laboratories have
in the past produced split-level benching but I don't really
like it because if a chemical was spilled (acid) would run
onto lower level unless kerbs introduced which seperate
socialy two people sharing the same workplace etc.
Of concern to me is the issue of emergency evacuation in
a fire situation in tall and difficult to access buidings where
to exclude say wheelchair users on H & S grounds may
be neither legaly nor politicaly acceptable, but to resort
to ' refuges' puts others and rescuers at additional risk.
This may be another dilemma where mobile people
are put at risk in an environment meant to cater for
those who do not enjoy the same degree of mobility
and raises all kinds of moral, and legal liability issues.
Hope this is of interest. Glynn Williams Univ' of Sheffield.
Judith M. Irving BSc Arch.Envir.
Research / PhD Student
S U R F A C E
Salford University Research Focus on AcCessible Environments
Bridgewater Building
Salford University
Salford, M7 9NU
England
Tel:0161-295-3194
http://www.scpm.salford.ac.uk/surface
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|