Equal Access are one of Australia's leading Accredited Disability Access Consultants. We are registered with the ACAA inc. and provide a specialist consulting service throughout Australia to enhance the built environment and to provide "Equal Access" for members of the community with a disability.

This quarters edition of Disability Access Issues looks at the following;

- Special Feature - Accessible Car Parking

- Mobility Maps
- Emergency Evacuation Update

- Evacuation Chairs

- On My Travels - New Shopping Centre
- On My Travels - Retail Office Development Malvern
- International Trends - A new stage for theatre captioning
- CAD Details & Architectural Specifier

Please feel free to distribute this email to friends, collegues and associates.

Bruce Bromley
Director

This section of the newsletter reviews the provision of Accessible Car Parking Spaces.

It will review a number of spaces, discuss what is wrong with them and explain how they should have been designed and provided.

We also look at the current applicable standard and the soon to be released standard.

Equal Access were recently commisioned by the City of Stonnington to prepare a comprehensive mobility map of the Glenferrie Road Retail Precinct located between Dandenong Road and High Street.

Equal Access design and prepare Mobility Maps in house and DO NOT out source any of the works with the exception of final printing.

EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT
PROCEDURES AS 3745

The committee has completed the review of public comments received on AS3745 Planning for emergencies which was released for Public Comment between 12 January and 16 March 2007.

Part of this updated standard will require Personal Evacuation Plans (PEPs) be prepared for all staff members with a disability.

Publication is expected in the second or third quarter of 2008.

In an emergency such as a fire or an earthquake, elevators should not be used. People with limited mobility may be trapped.

Equal Access & Universal ESCAPE are now distributors for the Spencer Pro Skid range of emergency evacuation chairs.

Designed to maximize the manoeuvrability in cramped spaces and on stairs. Easy transport of personnel to and from stairs and towards the outside of the building.

New Shopping Centre
I am on the road a lot and come across building works that could have been done better. This is one such location.

On a trip down to Frankston I passed the above shopping centre that opened early June 2008. The following is a quick review of some of the access issues I identified.

The following is a restaurant/retail/office development in Malvern.

There has been a great deal of effort spenton the design/layout of the Tactile Ground SUrface Indicators,to the poit they blend in almost perfectly to the adjacent paging.

Equal Access Pty Ltd Disability Access Consultants provide free of charge a library of CAD details for use when designing accessible amenity areas to AS1428.1

A full listing of manufacturers and suppliers of products that provide accessibility to the Built Environment are available in the "Specifiers" section of the website.