As part of our advocacy, #OneAccesibility, we will share information about differently able and profile one location with accessible trails. Look out every week for this enlightening post.
This summer, we were planning a trip to York , one of the most beautiful cities in Northern England. During the planning of this trip , I came across one of the most accessible tourist attractions called ‘Castle Howard’ , located 15 miles north of York ,one of Britain’s finest historic houses, situated just outside York in the Howardian Hills, an area of outstanding natural beauty, which had ‘Stair lifts’ !
Stairlifts are also known as stair lifts, stair risers , chair lifts and even stair gliders in different places. A stair lift is a mechanical device for lifting people up and down the staircase. For sufficiently wide stairs, a rail is mounted to the treads of the stairs. A chair or lifting platform is attached to the rail. A person gets onto the chair or platform(in case of a wheelchair) and is lifted up or down the stairs by the chair or platform which moves along the rail. Modern stair lifts can be found with a wide variety of features such as adjustable seat height, battery isolation switches, call stations, ‘flip-up’ rail, key switch, folding step, speed governor, seat belt, soft start and soft stop.
What I really liked about Stair lifts was that it’s a convenient option for a wheel-chair person or even an elderly person to use it by placing their wheelchair onto the platform and going up or down the stairs by themselves being a remote operated one. It gives them an independent feeling. I think it’s a great option for places where refurbishment to add accessible features (like lifts or ramp ) would not be a better option like in the case of the ‘Castle Howard’ in Yorkshire, where they opted for stairlifts as they wanted to maintain the 300 years plus old architecture of the stately home.
Stairlifts are also very common in many homes in the UK , especially where there are elderly people. For home use, the most popular stairlifts are Straight stairlifts and curved stairlifts , which are based on whether the staircase has a curve or bend in between its start and end points as seen below :
Another place where I found that there were stair risers installed is at Liverpool Cathedral in the UK. The lift takes wheelchair-users up and down a substantial curved stone staircase, bringing access to extra seating installed to accommodate rising attendance levels at the many occasions and attractions held in this impressive venue.
Does your city have places where you have seen such inclusive stair lifts? What is something that has surprised you in terms of inclusive features?
Let me know in the comments below.
If you have a question, suggestion, or contribution, feel free to comment below. You can read last week’s roundup article here and check the list of our other articles under “Accessibility Uncovered”.
, creo que la queme parece mejor es la última , donde muestras que la silla de ruedas baja y sube en una bandeja , de tal manera que el usuario no tenga que cambiar de silla para cambiar de piso. 