Our desire is to make the world more inclusive and accessible for those with mobility challenges. While many of our customers visit our Cranbrook and Castlegar store locations for our home medical products and consultative services, there is another way we are helping to lift our clients’ lifestyles higher.
Thankfully, we’re experiencing a period of greater enlightenment around the barriers that individuals with mobility challenges face in their day-to-day lives. There’s nothing more frustrating than visiting a local business, municipal building or entertainment venue and discovering that a staircase is the only way in with no ramp, elevator or stairlift providing an alternate means of entry.
While these events are unbearably frequent, things are slowly getting better. There has been an increased stress on the importance of making public spaces more easily accessible to those with mobility challenges.
Within BC, the provincial government is leading the way in breaking down barriers. The Accessible British Columbia Act received royal assent on June 17, 2021, embarking on the latest round of accessibility requirements for a variety of organizations including schools, municipal departments, health authorities and other public sector organizations.
The provincial government has also been consulting with British Columbians on the draft of two Accessible BC Standards: (1) the Accessible Service Delivery Standards which address barriers in both the physical and virtual environments to ensure that events, activities, advice, and the process of buying goods are provided in accessible ways; and (2) the Employment Accessibility Standards which address barriers to people with disabilities in hiring, training and retention.
“It’s developing a standard so that anybody … can be able to fully access their community and that’s what we want for people with disabilities, to remove barriers,” said Sheila Malcolmson, Nanaimo MLA and B.C. Minister of Social Development and Poverty Reduction.
Given our country’s ageing population, it’s a process we wish could have started earlier but it’s happening now, it’s progress, and change for the better seems to be drawing closer on the horizon.
All of which circles back around to how we help to lift our clients’ lives higher. While we are well known throughout the East and West Kootenays for providing a wide range of home accessibility devices including stair lifts, porch lifts and home elevators, the word “Home” in our company name also extends to many of the places people would consider their “home away from home” such as commercial buildings, places of worship, schools and libraries, and other public institutions – through the installation and maintenance of Class H elevating devices.
Through Technical Safety British Columbia (TSBC), we are certified to work with a variety of constant-pressure lifts, a style of elevating device that involves the user holding the travel button through the duration of the lift’s travel. The range of elevating devices we offer includes commercial stairlifts (straight or curved), inclined platform lifts and commercial vertical platform lifts. Visit the Savaria website to learn more about the equipment options offered.
From quotation to completion in 3-6 months
Commercial elevating device installation is a serious business. Passenger safety always comes first and foremost, and all work on commercial lifts must be completed by a certified elevating device technician. The installation process involves producing technical drawings and design specifications, applying for the necessary permits, ordering custom equipment, installation and final site inspection by the certifying body, TSBC. Upon completion and commissioning of a new lift, TSBC mandates that the commercial lift has an operating permit as well as a quarterly service agreement with a certified commercial elevating company (a service we provide) to ensure the lift consistently meets safety regulation standards.
We have had prospective clients call and ask us if we can install an elevator for them quickly to accommodate a mobility-challenged individual before a special event the organization is hosting… in just a couple of weeks. They are surprised to hear the entire process can take up to six months, though not surprising when you consider there are no shortcuts when it comes to iron-tight safety standards.
We have also had clients approach us when they’ve already started construction on a building remodel or retrofit, which is far from ideal as the proposed location may not meet commercial elevating regulations, or the staircase or hoist-way design will not accommodate the proposed lift. It’s an issue that can be fixed but will likely involve an additional expense billed by your construction contractor.
That’s why we encourage prospective clients to contact us as early as possible in their design phase. We will gladly perform a site visit free of charge with one of our certified elevating device technicians to discuss all the equipment options and follow up with a detailed quote. We also offer an inspection and service package that we perform on a quarterly basis; again, contact us for a quote.