What regulations do we need to comply with?
Standard UNE-EN 81-70 is entrusted with regulating the specifications a lift classified as "accessible" needs to comply with. It contains the essential components, the recommended minimum dimensions and the respective adaptations designed to ensure people with reduced mobility are able to enter and leave the cabin without any difficulty.
Components of an accessible lift
We are now going to explain what measurements an accessible lift needs to comply with:
a. Access
The first difficulty a disabled person or a person with reduced mobility may encounter involves entering/leaving the lift and the maneuvers conducted on entering the cabin, and as such the area outside the lift will need to be free of obstacles and level.
The opening should be 150 centimeters in diameter, or in other words the user should be able to turn a full circle with the wheelchair. Moreover, there should be a 2-centimeter horizontal gap and a 1-centimeter vertical gap between the floor and the cabin.
b. Doors
The doors should be of the automatic sliding type and should remain open for at least 20 seconds. Moreover, an accessible lift should have a button to close the doors and a motion sensor covering the height of between 25 and 180 centimeters above the ground. As for the width of the door, it should be no less than 80 to 85 centimeters. The colour of the doors should stand out in relation to the rest of the walls, and the area providing access to the lift should also be painted in a bright colour.
c. Cabin
The cabin should be at least 1 meter wide by 1.25 meters deep, although certain recommendations suggest the cabin should be enlarged to 1.1 meters wide by 1.4 meters deep in order to provide greater comfort. This is so when a person with a disability or reduced mobility needs to use an accessible lift, they can do so together with another person to ensure they do not have to travel alone in the event of need.
In addition, if your building has a large lift shaft area, we also recommend a 1.5 meter x 1.5 meter cabin size, thereby enabling users to maneuver inside the cabin without any kind of technical difficulty due to the space available.
The cabin should be equipped with a side handrail and a rear mirror, the aim being to enable users to leave lifts of a minimum size without any difficulty with the help of these components.
d. Signage components and devices
Although it may seem obvious as the vast majority of lifts are usually equipped with one, the button panel in an accessible lift should always feature the characters in Braille, in relief format, and in a bright colour.
The button panel should be between 90 and 110 centimeters in height to ensure wheelchair users can reach it easily.
With regard to signage, there should be a device both inside and outside the lift indicating which floor the lift is on and an audio alert to warn when the doors are opened.