Disability Access Certificates – Is the design of buildings being followed throughout the construction process?
As you may be aware a (granted) Disability Access Certificate is a certificate of compliance that states if the building or works to which the application relates is built in accordance with the design it will meet the requirements of Part M of the Second Schedule of the Building Regulations.
OHAC recently inspected a number of buildings and was surprised to see how many of the design elements referenced in the granted DAC applications hadn’t been followed through during construction. Examples include:
- New incorrectly designed ramps that were too long and didn’t provide half landings as required in technical guidance. Also handrails (that didn’t provide visual contrast!) were only provided on one side of the ramp.
- Manual entrance doors that were incorrectly hinged and did not provide a leading edge of 300mm on the pull side of the doors.
- Stairwells along circulation routes that didn’t maintain a clear headroom of 2100mm underneath the stairwell.
- Doors in circulation routes that didn’t provide vision panels.
- Inadequate lighting levels in unisex accessible WCs and poor visual contrast between fixtures, fittings, walls and floors.
- Step nosings that only provided 30mm wide visual contrasting nosings instead of the 50-65mm recommended in Technical Guidance Document M 2010.
- Internal directional signage that didn’t meet any accessibility guidelines or standards.
Therefore it seems that the paper exercise of getting a Disability Access Certificate is not being followed through at all stages of the process and inaccessible buildings are still being built.
It is important to note that Architects and Designers still have a responsibility to meet the requirements of Part M after the DAC has been granted and should be providing an opinion of compliance to demonstrate that the building has been built in accordance with the Regulations. Maybe the new procedures outlined in the Building Control Amendment Regulations (2013) which are due to come into effect on 1st March 2014 will help get this right!
If you would like further information on making the built environment more accessible, please do not hesitate to contact us on 01-4151285 or [email protected].
