Archived report · 2 min read · Set in Saint-Verel ·
The Wheelchair Ramp at Saint Verel
An accessibility audit of the new ramp at Saint Verel church finds it fitted to a step that has never existed, and the handrail, measured for a left-handed user, has been polished smooth by hands that do not show on any camera.
- filed: Filed with the disability access review
- reference: AC/SV/05
Subject: wheelchair access ramp, west door, Saint Verel parish church. Installed 2019 under the heritage access scheme.
1. The ramp is a timber and steel structure, 1.2 metres wide, rising 180 millimetres over a length of 4.8 metres from the path to the west door. Gradient 1 in 26, within the standard for public buildings. The handrail is fitted on the left side only, at 900 millimetres height.
2. The audit found that the ramp meets all dimensional requirements. The landing is level, the surface is non-slip, and the lighting is adequate.
3. The west door of the church is approached by a single stone step at the base of the tower. The step is original, dating from the twelfth century. The ramp, however, is fitted to a point roughly 40 centimetres above the step. There is no step at that height. The ramp's upper end rests against the tower wall, at a height where the masonry is smooth and unbroken, with no evidence of any former opening.
4. The surveyor recorded that a wheelchair user, reaching the top of the ramp, would have to move directly into the wall. The ramp does not provide access to any door. It provides access, the surveyor noted, only to the tower wall itself.
5. The handrail was measured for grip. It was found to have been polished to a smooth finish along its upper surface, at a height and spacing consistent with a left hand of an adult, with the fingers spread to grip the rail on the descent. The polish is recent. The timber has no varnish and no visible wear from any normal use, since the ramp has never been used by a wheelchair user.
6. Recommendation: the ramp to be extended to the correct door and a new landing added. The vicar agreed, and asked the contractor to begin work in the spring.
7. Observation not explained by the survey: when the surveyor returned in the spring to measure the new landing, the ramp had already been extended. It rose to the correct height and met the west door with a level step. The handrail had been replaced with a new one, fitted on the right side. The polish on the old handrail was still there, bright and smooth, and the surveyor noted that the fingers that had worn it were now, very faintly, leaving prints on the timber from the other side.