Two more London stations have recently gained step-free access, continuing a much wider effort to make buildings and public spaces easier to use for people who cannot rely on stairs.
Surrey Quays now has step-free access to both platforms following the installation of two lifts, while a new lift and footbridge at Northolt provide a step-free route from street to train.
More than a third of London Underground stations are now step-free. More than half of London Overground stations also provide step-free access, as do all stations on the Elizabeth line and Docklands Light Railway.
The work taking place across the transport network is highly visible, but the same accessibility problem exists in thousands of other buildings.
Shops, offices, hotels, schools and older public buildings were often designed at a time when providing independent access for people with limited mobility received far less consideration than it does today.
Improving those buildings is not always as simple as adding a ramp at the entrance.
Step-Free Needs to Mean More Than Getting Through the Front Door
Removing the first set of steps doesn’t necessarily make a building accessible.
Once inside, raised floors, level changes, staircases, or facilities spread across different storeys may still block access.
A wheelchair user could have no difficulty entering a building but still be unable to reach the reception desk, toilets, meeting rooms or another part of the premises.
That is why accessibility needs to be considered as a route through the building rather than as an individual feature.
Where does somebody enter? Where do they need to go once they are inside? Can they reach the same facilities as everybody else?
Those questions often reveal barriers that aren’t particularly noticeable to somebody who can use the stairs.
Older Buildings Present a Different Problem
Creating step-free access is generally easier when you consider it during the design of a new building.
Existing buildings can be considerably more difficult.
Floor levels are already fixed. Corridors and staircases may be narrow. There may be little unused space, and extensive structural changes may be impractical.
Listed buildings and properties with important architectural features can present further complications because changes may need to be made without unnecessarily damaging the building’s character.
This doesn’t mean an older building cannot be made more accessible. It means the solution has to work with the building that is actually there.
Sometimes a ramp is enough to deal with a small change in level. In other situations the length of ramp required would take up too much space or create another obstruction.
Where there is a greater difference between levels, a lift may be the more practical option.
Not Every Accessible Lift Is a Passenger Lift
When people hear the word lift, they often picture a conventional passenger lift with a large shaft running through several floors.
That isn’t the only way of providing lift access.
A platform lift can be used to provide access between different levels where a conventional passenger lift may not be the appropriate solution.
Different types are available for different situations. Some travel vertically between floors, while others are intended to overcome shorter changes in level.
The correct choice depends on considerably more than the height that needs to be travelled.
You also need to consider available space, the number of levels, intended users, frequency of use, entrance arrangement, and the surrounding building.
Simply finding a lift that physically fits into the available space isn’t enough.
The Space Outside the Lift Matters Too
This is one detail that can easily be overlooked when planning accessibility work.
A lift needs enough space around its entrances for the people who are expected to use it.
For a wheelchair user, that means considering the approach to the lift and the space available when leaving it. Door positions, corridor widths and turning areas can determine whether an installation works properly in practice.
The destination matters as well.
There is little value in overcoming a change in floor level if the accessible route finishes somewhere that leaves another barrier immediately ahead.
Good access comes from looking at the whole journey, not treating the lift as an isolated piece of equipment.
Retrofitting Accessibility Takes Planning
The recent work at Surrey Quays illustrates the scale that accessibility improvements can sometimes reach.
The project did not simply involve putting lifts beside an existing staircase. It included a new station entrance, ticket hall, footbridge and other changes alongside the two lifts providing access to the platforms.
A commercial building is unlikely to involve work on anything approaching that scale, but the underlying principle is similar.
The lift and the building have to work together.
Before selecting equipment, you need to assess the available space, the levels being connected, and the routes people will use to reach the lift.
Before installation, you need to understand structural work, electrical requirements, entrances, and how the lift will be used.
Choosing the equipment first and working out the building around it afterwards can make the job unnecessarily difficult.
Accessibility Also Depends on Reliability
Installing accessible equipment is only part of the responsibility.
It has to remain available.
A lift that provides the only step-free route to part of a building becomes particularly important because a breakdown doesn’t simply cause inconvenience. For some users, it can remove access completely.
This is already seen on public transport, where a station described as step-free may temporarily lose that route if a lift is unavailable.
The same principle applies in other buildings.
Maintenance therefore forms part of accessibility planning. Equipment should be serviced appropriately, faults should be investigated and building managers need to understand what happens if the accessible route is temporarily unavailable.
The Building Has to Work for the People Using It
The continued investment in step-free transport reflects a wider change in how accessibility is viewed.
It is no longer enough to assume that providing an alternative entrance or dealing with one obvious set of steps makes a building accessible.
People need to be able to move through the parts of the building they are expected to use.
For an existing property, achieving that may involve relatively minor changes. Elsewhere it can require alterations to entrances, internal layouts or movement between floors.
The important part is establishing where the barriers actually are before deciding how to remove them.
That is what makes step-free access useful in practice rather than simply another feature on a building specification.
