Tips for Users with Special Needs
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Disabled or Elderly Passengers
Anyone who has difficulty walking, standing or keeping their balance should avoid use of escalators, and use elevators instead. Generally, buildings with escalators are required to offer alternative elevator service. Look for a directional sign or ask a building representative if you cannot locate the elevator.
The general rules for safe elevator ridership and safe escalator ridership apply equally to passengers with disabilities. In addition, these few extra guidelines will make for a more pleasant, uneventful journey for disabled riders.
Blind Passengers
Anyone who has difficulty walking, standing or keeping their balance should avoid use of escalators, and use elevators instead. Generally, buildings with escalators are required to offer alternative elevator service. Look for a directional sign or ask a building representative if you cannot locate the elevator.
The general rules for safe elevator ridership and safe escalator ridership apply equally to passengers with disabilities. In addition, these few extra guidelines will make for a more pleasant, uneventful journey for disabled riders.
Blind Passengers
- To facilitate the registering of calls in the elevator car, blind passengers should seek Braille or raised-numeral plates adjacent to the floor buttons. All new elevators have these, and they have been added to many older elevators as well. Similar plates may be mounted on the door jambs at each floor to help identify the floor number.
- Special floor-passing chimes or voice annunciators in newer or updated elevators help blind passengers sense the movement and location of the car.
- In the hallways, the hall or car lanterns in newer or upgraded buildings will sound once to announce that an arriving car is traveling up, and twice to indicate that it is going down.
Passengers in Wheelchairs
Most newer elevators will have their operating buttons mounted such that they are readily used by passengers in wheelchairs. If you need to use an older elevator whose buttons are out of reach, use a reaching device or ask for assistance.
Passengers with Bulky Packages, Cargo, Carts, Strollers, etc.
Anyone with packages, freight, carts, strollers or dollies should avoid use of escalators and use elevators instead. It is difficult or impossible to follow safe escalator ridership rules in such situations. Building owners or managers should be careful to monitor escalators for such unsafe usage, and should encourage use of elevators through signage, announcements or personal intervention.
ADA Requirements
In recent years, new technology, legislation and code changes have resulted in improved accessibility for the disabled. The Americans with Disabilities Act (http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/ada/adahom1.htm) that pertain to elevators. While new elevators must generally comply with these requirements, the rules vary regarding older elevators. So, passengers may encounter elevators which do not meet the accessibility standards required of new equipment.
Schindler has prepared a comprehensive booklet outlining the ADA requirements for elevators, discussing how those requirements impact existing elevators, and suggesting ways in which noncompliant elevators can be upgraded to improve accessibility. For a free copy, please visit our Safety Materials section.
Most newer elevators will have their operating buttons mounted such that they are readily used by passengers in wheelchairs. If you need to use an older elevator whose buttons are out of reach, use a reaching device or ask for assistance.
Passengers with Bulky Packages, Cargo, Carts, Strollers, etc.
Anyone with packages, freight, carts, strollers or dollies should avoid use of escalators and use elevators instead. It is difficult or impossible to follow safe escalator ridership rules in such situations. Building owners or managers should be careful to monitor escalators for such unsafe usage, and should encourage use of elevators through signage, announcements or personal intervention.
ADA Requirements
In recent years, new technology, legislation and code changes have resulted in improved accessibility for the disabled. The Americans with Disabilities Act (http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/ada/adahom1.htm) that pertain to elevators. While new elevators must generally comply with these requirements, the rules vary regarding older elevators. So, passengers may encounter elevators which do not meet the accessibility standards required of new equipment.
Schindler has prepared a comprehensive booklet outlining the ADA requirements for elevators, discussing how those requirements impact existing elevators, and suggesting ways in which noncompliant elevators can be upgraded to improve accessibility. For a free copy, please visit our Safety Materials section.
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