Wheelchair Lifts for Public Buildings

Designing and Installing Wheelchair Lifts for Public Buildings

Having a disability still means living with restricted choices across the UK. Many wheelchair users continue to experience problems when trying to access public buildings. Recent research found that 20% of disabled people experienced difficulties shopping, 15% when eating out, and 68% when visiting a museum or art gallery.

Tower Lifts takes pride in being part of the solution when it comes to wheelchair lifts for public buildings. Since we started designing and installing lifts nearly two decades ago, our engineers have installed hundreds of platform lifts for the retail, hospitality, commercial and leisure sectors.

What Is Expected of Public Building Managers/Owners?

The 2010 Equality Act requires that building owners ensure equal access to all their services. Part M of the Building Regulations reflects this by requiring that wheelchair lifts are available in multi-level commercial and public buildings, where alternatives are not available.

Platform Lifts are a popular solution for public building owners who are keen to ensure access for wheelchair users. They are:

Easy to access in a wheelchair; they can be fitted with a ramp, or flush to the floor.
Simple to install as they don’t require a lift shaft.
Affordable for every kind of public building.
Adaptable and can be used for stairs, vertical transport, or split-level flooring.

What Kind of Platform Lift is Best?

The idea with platform lifts is to make installing wheelchair lifts in public buildings easy. This means working with the space available, overcoming obstacles to access in an innovative way, and ensuring that wheelchair users have the same standard of access as anyone else.

At Tower Lifts we provide 3 kinds of platform lifts for wheelchair users:

Inclined Platform Lifts. These are designed to hug the contours of the stairway. The platform offers sufficient space and is sturdy enough to provide high performance transport on straight or curved stairways. When not in use, the platform folds back to provide access for foot traffic.
Step Lift. This is a platform lift that’s designed for transport through short flights of steps or split-level flooring. The elegant mechanism is easy to access and has a range of safety mechanisms. If installed in a museum or heritage property, the step lift can be customised to blend seamlessly with its surroundings.
Vertical Platform Lift. In multi-level buildings, the vertical platform lift is an ideal solution. It looks very similar to a small passenger lift, with a traditional cabin design. Often the doors and walls are transparent, and the cabin control panel is always designed for passengers’ ease of use.

Working With Tower Lifts

Tower Lifts design and installation engineers are highly skilled, with years of experience working with platforms lifts. Passenger safety drives every decision we make, and it underpins every installation. Beyond that, we create elegant solutions that offer every passenger the same quality of experience, and level of access to buildings and services.

Would you like to talk to a Tower Lift engineer about installing wheelchair lifts in public buildings? Call us today on 01525 601099

Tower Lifts carry out design and installation on a varied range of lifts throughout the UK including:

Domestic Lifts • Food Lifts • Bespoke Platform Lifts • Service Lifts • Platform Lifts • Goods Lifts • Scenic Lifts • Heavy Duty / Car Lifts • Passenger Lifts • Dumbwaiter Lifts • MRL Lifts • Fire lifts • Residential Lifts • low-Headroom Lift