Electric stair chair

Ever since the Disability Discrimination Act was passed in 1995 (recently superseded by the Equality Act 2010), the lives of disabled people has taken a turn for the better with more hospitals, train stations and homes now adjusting to the trials of travelling by wheelchair by installing ramps and steps, making it easier for wheelchair users to get around with minimal hassle and saving a lot of time in the process.

When it comes to disabled access however, there are a lot of difficulties in meeting people’s needs. Projects such as installing electric stair chairs take a substantial amount of time and may lead to sections of buildings being shut off to allow building work to continue uninterrupted. However, this doesn’t have to be the case, which is the point that is putting across with their electric stair chairs.

The lifts that we make are completely bespoke, so as long as the customer lets us know where they want the lift to be installed and what materials to use, the electric stair chair can be custom made and ready to put in its intended location. Our electric stair lifts have already been installed in all manner of buildings; be they large, small, offices or town halls. We also have backing from British Heritage to install our electric stair chairs in their listed buildings due to the way that we can preserve the period décor by cladding our lifts in all manner of stone or wooden finishes.

Take for example St James’ Church in London, where we worked with a construction company in order to install an electric stair chair with hydraulic systems, upper and lower button stations and wheel-stops. Upon pressing the “Call lift” button, the steps start retracting and a rising barrier complete with lift platform emerges from underneath. When the user moves onto the platform, the wheel-stop rises around the edges of the platform and the lift can safely move up. Once the electric stair chair has stopped moving, the rising barrier descends and the user can move off the platform in total security. The electric stair chair also has an on/off switch to start or stop it.

The emergency switch can be activated in the event of the barriers failing to lower or if the lift stops moving. This allows the barriers to be forcibly moved out of the way by pushing on them.

There are many regulations for buildings with such type of lifts, one being that for a wheelchair lift with a rise of over 1000mm, there has to be a surrounding barrier or impediment that stops the user from having a bad fall, meaning it cannot be any lower than waist height. Sesame Access lifts are built with all the necessary barriers and wheel-stops in place to ensure that any disabled person can use the lift with full confidence. Please have a look at our projects page for a list of the places where we have installed our electric stair chairs and to see what we can do to enhance your access.