Disability News

Zero Rated VAT on Wheelchair Ramps

Not long ago I set up some pages on google to display some of our wheelchair ramps

After doing so, I received an email from google asking about VAT, so pointed out to them that if wheelchair ramps are bought by a disabled person for their own personal and domestic use they can be zero rated.

Wheelchair-ramps.co.uk website For Sale

This website is for sale

I am finding it impossible to maintain all my websites at the moment, so have decided to put my wheelchair ramps website up for sale.

I have no idea of a price yet, so will first tidy up a load of old pages and broken links and then take things from there.

It’s a shame, as it was one of my first websites which I used for making money, but I just haven’t got the time needed to keep it updated.

The Queen’s Christmas Speech 2009

Every year I post an AAA Accessible transcript of The Queen’s Christmas Message.

This years can be found here The Queen’s Christmas Message 2009

This years speech praises the Commonwealth armed forces and the importance of the Commomweath in general.

Access Consultants in Hull

We added a new listing to the Access Appraisals access consultants directory today for an Access Consultant in Hull.

About Access provide  Access Consultancy, Design Appraisals, Access Statements and Access Audits on all aspects of disabled accessibility.

They are based in Kingston upon Hull, East Yorkshire and operate throughout the North East

Further Information

Disabled Access Regulations DDA

Information on disabled wheelchair access ramps Including recommendations from BS 8300:2001 and Part M of current UK building regulations

Disclaimer: The information and advice given on this website is to the best of our knowledge, but we accept no responsibility if acted upon, and advise you contact your architect, building control, planning department, highways department and local fire authority if in any doubt.

Although not necessarily so with existing premises, it is advised that you try to adhere to these recommendations whenever possible.

Part M: access and facilities for disabled people

Current UK Building regulations are slightly different with regard Dwellings and other building, these recommendations are for “Buildings Other Than Dwellings”.

A wheelchair ramp will comply with Part M if it;

Has a non-slip surface.
Is 1.5m wide with a minimum unobstructed width of 1.5m.
Has a maximum individual flight of 10m and maximum
gradients of 1:20 if longer than 5m, 1:15 if longer than 2m
or 1:12 if shorter than 2m.
Has top and bottom landings no less than 1.2m and intermediate
Landings of 1.5m every 10m.
Has 100mm high raised kerbs to any open side of ramp or landings
Has a continuous suitable handrail on each open side when
the ramp excedes 2m

Part M: access and facilities for disabled people is available from The Stationary Office here for £13.00, or a free downloadable version in pdf format is available from The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister here

BS 8300:2001

A more recent document BS 8300:2001 Design of buildings and their approaches to meet the needs of disabled people. Code of practice
has been produced by the British Standards Institution
BS 8300:2001, is a source of best practice for architects, builders, and facilities managers. It encourages innovative design solutions for different types of building, including homes, shops and theatres.
A number of sections provide guidelines and recommendations in relation to disabled access and ramps in particular and it tends to offers a more detailed version than the building regulations document Part M.
At a cost of nearly £:220.00 it is a little expensive and to date, does not appear to be available free of charge online without a subscription.
Fortunately, it is available for viewing free of charge at most Public Libraries (I suggest you check with you local library first and book a time to use their facilities)

For further information on BS8300

Portable Wheelchair Ramps

There are recommendations concerning portable ramps in BS8300:2001, but in a number of circumstances, primarily with existing premises they can be difficult to adhere to.
A key point to bear in mind is the DDA’s phrase:

“Where a physical feature (for example, one arising from the design or construction of a building or the approach or access to premises) makes it impossible or unreasonably difficult for disabled persons to make use of such a service, it is the duty of the provider of that service to take such steps as it is reasonable”

“Reasonable adjustments” is a phrase that if you have not heard yet, you more than likely will do other the coming months. It is the so called “grey area” of the Act which will surely be a key point for the courts to decide.
What constitutes a “reasonable adjustment”? – Their is no easy answer, but in my personal oppinion all cases will be dealt with individually.
For instance
A new, or an existing high value property would reasonably be expected to comply with all recommendations under BS8300 and Part M.
Where as, a small local village shop, salon etc. would reasonably be expected to make minor alterations and provide auxiliary aids, such as clipboards, audio aids, trained assistance, portable wheelchair access ramps etc.
If you would like to make any comments on the information displayed on, or this website in general I would be most grateful to receive them.
Please email any comments to,
Mr.Terry Simmonds
(Director)
Access Appraisals Ltd
www.wheelchair-ramps.co.uk

RBS Wheelchair Access

Finally a court case has upheld the requirements of the Disability Descrimination Act DDA which makes it a requirement for all service providers to provide accessible buildings and make reasonable adjustments to existing buildings.

The Act came in in October 2004 and it has taken 5 years before a judge has ruled on a high profile case such as this without the company involved settling out of court to keep things quiet.

18 year old student David Allen was awarded £6,500 damages after he took legal action after the Royal Bank of Scotland failed to to make its Church Street branch in Sheffield wheelchair accessible.

RBS have also been istructed to carry out the necessary work to make the propery accessible at an estimated cost of £200,000

There have been other cases over the years, but none of these have been decided by a court, now that this one has it could become a precedence and hopefully encourage other service providers to make the changes they are legally obliged to do.

The days of the DDA being totally ignored are hopefully numbered and this could lead to far greater equality for disabled people throughout the UK.

Wine Cooler Ramps

We had an unusual enquiry last week.

Answered the phone and it was someone who had just ordered a wine cooler and wanted a way of easily moving it about between a couple of locations which both had steps.

The model they had bought was a Single Temperature Wine Cabinet which is 1810 high x 680 wide x 680 deep and when empty weighs approx 80kg

They had a little trolley which they transported it on but it couldn’t cope with the steps.

In the end we recommended a simple 5ft classic wheelchair ramp and have just received an email back from them saying it was ideal and means they can easily move it even when half filled with wine bottles.

Wheelchair Ramps Video

Click on the video above to see more information about portable wheelchair ramps.

Re-structuring website to concentrate more on wheelchair ramps

Over the past few months I have been neglecting the wheelchair ramps section of my site a little and have been adding more and more sections about other disability related products, services or general topics.

This got me thinking about whether I should be building new sites for these products rather than have them on a wheelchar ramps site which is sometimes not even rellevant to the products/services I am adding.

Unfortunately I am a bit tied up with an article site at the moment and have also just started a google maps optimisation site which will probably take me a couple of days to set up.

Hopefully, by the end of the week these will both be wrapped up and I will the start removing the content not related to wheelchair ramps on to new sites.

Portable Induction Loops

The KTP Microloop is one of the few portable induction loops systems on the market designed to be self-installable. Requiring no special skills or tools, comprehensive instructions and all fixings are supplied with each unit.

The savings that can be made through not requiring specially trained installation staff are considerable, making Microloop one of the most cost effective solutions for compliance with the DDA.

The Loop box (27cm x 27cm x 2.6cm) can be permanently fitted underneath the counter either vertically or horizontally with a single wire connection to the desktop microphone and a small cable running to an adjacent 13 amp power socket.