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Is your door wide enough for a wheelchair?

ROOT
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Monday, 16 September 2024 19:12
Tuesday, 15 January 2019 12:16
Administrator
Hits: 11100

This is a really common question. The Australian Standards AS1428.1 requires a minimum clear opening of 850mm to provide clearances for the 90th Percentile wheelchair.  Practically, smaller door openings will provide for smaller wheelchairs, however, the Standards have been derived, with a line in the sand and, provided your doorway is a min 850 clear of any obstructions, it is lawful. This width is derived from limited funding research of a small sample group of wheelchair users in the 1980's, and desperately needs reconsideration given the advancing technologies and predominance of motorised wheelchairs today.

The reality is that some wheelchairs can fit through much smaller openings safely, and other wheelchairs are simply too wide, even for an 850 clear opening. In a private house, you could, by using personal ergonomic measurements, design the door widths and corridors to suit the resident's clearance requirements and not follow the standards at all. In a commercial building however, or in public spaces of residential apartments, you must(with some exceptions) adopt the AS 1428.1 requirements. The Standards are available for Purchase from the Standards store. Link: https://store.standards.org.au/

There are other exceptions to the door width required by the Standards. In NSW Nursing homes, for instance, doorways are required to be wider than the minimum in the standards, especially when occupants are evacuated in emergency situations while remaining in their beds. Clearances are needed to fit the bed through the door (obviously without tipping it sideways, since there is a resident on the bed!) Details for those doorway clearances and corridor widths are stipulated in the building code and big problems (with big rectification costs) are caused by mere millimetre indiscretions.

There's more to traversing through a door opening than simply getting the door size right. There are circulation space requirements located on either side of the door to enable a person to operate it, and there are door handle clearance requirements, as well as requirements related to the force required to operate the door. All of these limitations mean that you'd better obtain the right advice first up, to avoid costly rebuilds. Contact Sydney Access Consultants for a review of  your project.

Access Consultant's Journal

Attempted to load class "CliDumper" from namespace "Symfony\Component\VarDumper\Dumper". Did you forget a "use" statement for another namespace? (500 Whoops, looks like something went wrong.)

ClassNotFoundError

HTTP 500 Whoops, looks like something went wrong.

Attempted to load class "CliDumper" from namespace "Symfony\Component\VarDumper\Dumper".
Did you forget a "use" statement for another namespace?

Exception

Symfony\Component\ErrorHandler\Error\ ClassNotFoundError

in /home/sydneya1/public_html/libraries/vendor/maximebf/debugbar/src/DebugBar/DataFormatter/DataFormatter.php (line 28)
  1.      * DataFormatter constructor.
  2.      */
  3.     public function __construct()
  4.     {
  5.         $this->cloner = new VarCloner();
  6.         $this->dumper = new CliDumper();
  7.     }
  9.     /**
  10.      * @param $data
  11.      * @return string
DataFormatter->__construct() in /home/sydneya1/public_html/plugins/system/debug/src/AbstractDataCollector.php (line 80)
  1.      * @return DataFormatter
  2.      */
  3.     public static function getDefaultDataFormatter(): DataFormatter
  4.     {
  5.         if (self::$defaultDataFormatter === null) {
  6.             self::$defaultDataFormatter = new DataFormatter();
  7.         }
  9.         return self::$defaultDataFormatter;
  10.     }
AbstractDataCollector::getDefaultDataFormatter() in /home/sydneya1/public_html/plugins/system/debug/src/AbstractDataCollector.php (line 65)
  1.      * @return DataFormatter
  2.      */
  3.     public function getDataFormatter(): DataFormatter
  4.     {
  5.         if ($this->dataFormater === null) {
  6.             $this->dataFormater = self::getDefaultDataFormatter();
  7.         }
  9.         return $this->dataFormater;
  10.     }
AbstractDataCollector->getDataFormatter() in /home/sydneya1/public_html/plugins/system/debug/src/DataCollector/SessionCollector.php (line 87)
  2.                 $value = '***redacted***';
  3.             });
  5.             foreach ($data as $key => $value) {
  6.                 $this->sessionData[$key] = $this->getDataFormatter()->formatVar($value);
  7.             }
  8.         }
  10.         return ['data' => $this->sessionData];
  11.     }
SessionCollector->collect() in /home/sydneya1/public_html/plugins/system/debug/src/DataCollector/SessionCollector.php (line 58)
  1.     public function __construct($params, $collect = false)
  2.     {
  3.         parent::__construct($params);
  5.         if ($collect) {
  6.             $this->collect();
  7.         }
  8.     }
  10.     /**
  11.      * Called by the DebugBar when data needs to be collected
SessionCollector->__construct(object(Registry), true) in /home/sydneya1/public_html/plugins/system/debug/src/Extension/Debug.php (line 299)
  1.             if ($this->params->get('request', 1)) {
  2.                 $this->debugBar->addCollector(new RequestDataCollector());
  3.             }
  5.             if ($this->params->get('session', 1)) {
  6.                 $this->debugBar->addCollector(new SessionCollector($this->params, true));
  7.             }
  9.             if ($this->params->get('profile', 1)) {
  10.                 $this->debugBar->addCollector((new ProfileCollector($this->params))->setRequestEndTime($endTime));
  11.             }
in /home/sydneya1/public_html/libraries/vendor/joomla/event/src/Dispatcher.php -> onAfterRespond (line 454)
  1.             foreach ($this->listeners[$event->getName()] as $listener) {
  2.                 if ($event->isStopped()) {
  3.                     return $event;
  4.                 }
  6.                 $listener($event);
  7.             }
  8.         }
  10.         return $event;
  11.     }
in /home/sydneya1/public_html/libraries/vendor/joomla/application/src/AbstractApplication.php -> dispatch (line 99)
  1.             $dispatcher = $this->getDispatcher();
  2.         } catch (\UnexpectedValueException $exception) {
  3.             return null;
  4.         }
  6.         return $dispatcher->dispatch($eventName, $event ?: new ApplicationEvent($eventName, $this));
  7.     }
  9.     /**
  10.      * Method to run the application routines.
  11.      *
AbstractApplication->dispatchEvent('onAfterRespond', object(AfterRespondEvent)) in /home/sydneya1/public_html/libraries/src/Application/CMSApplication.php (line 349)
  2.         // Send the application response.
  3.         $this->respond();
  5.         // Trigger the onAfterRespond event.
  6.         $this->dispatchEvent(
  7.             'onAfterRespond',
  8.             new AfterRespondEvent('onAfterRespond', ['subject' => $this])
  9.         );
  10.     }
CMSApplication->execute() in /home/sydneya1/public_html/includes/app.php (line 58)
  2. // Set the application as global app
  3. \Joomla\CMS\Factory::$application = $app;
  5. // Execute the application.
  6. $app->execute();
require_once('/home/sydneya1/public_html/includes/app.php') in /home/sydneya1/public_html/index.php (line 284)
  1.  * define() is used rather than "const" to not error for PHP 5.2 and lower
  2.  */
  3. define('_JEXEC', 1);
  5. // Run the application - All executable code should be triggered through this file
  6. require_once dirname(__FILE__) . '/includes/app.php';

Stack Trace

ClassNotFoundError 
Symfony\Component\ErrorHandler\Error\ClassNotFoundError:
Attempted to load class "CliDumper" from namespace "Symfony\Component\VarDumper\Dumper".
Did you forget a "use" statement for another namespace?

  at /home/sydneya1/public_html/libraries/vendor/maximebf/debugbar/src/DebugBar/DataFormatter/DataFormatter.php:28
  at DebugBar\DataFormatter\DataFormatter->__construct()
     (/home/sydneya1/public_html/plugins/system/debug/src/AbstractDataCollector.php:80)
  at Joomla\Plugin\System\Debug\AbstractDataCollector::getDefaultDataFormatter()
     (/home/sydneya1/public_html/plugins/system/debug/src/AbstractDataCollector.php:65)
  at Joomla\Plugin\System\Debug\AbstractDataCollector->getDataFormatter()
     (/home/sydneya1/public_html/plugins/system/debug/src/DataCollector/SessionCollector.php:87)
  at Joomla\Plugin\System\Debug\DataCollector\SessionCollector->collect()
     (/home/sydneya1/public_html/plugins/system/debug/src/DataCollector/SessionCollector.php:58)
  at Joomla\Plugin\System\Debug\DataCollector\SessionCollector->__construct(object(Registry), true)
     (/home/sydneya1/public_html/plugins/system/debug/src/Extension/Debug.php:299)
  at Joomla\Plugin\System\Debug\Extension\Debug->onAfterRespond(object(AfterRespondEvent))
     (/home/sydneya1/public_html/libraries/vendor/joomla/event/src/Dispatcher.php:454)
  at Joomla\Event\Dispatcher->dispatch('onAfterRespond', object(AfterRespondEvent))
     (/home/sydneya1/public_html/libraries/vendor/joomla/application/src/AbstractApplication.php:99)
  at Joomla\Application\AbstractApplication->dispatchEvent('onAfterRespond', object(AfterRespondEvent))
     (/home/sydneya1/public_html/libraries/src/Application/CMSApplication.php:349)
  at Joomla\CMS\Application\CMSApplication->execute()
     (/home/sydneya1/public_html/includes/app.php:58)
  at require_once('/home/sydneya1/public_html/includes/app.php')
     (/home/sydneya1/public_html/index.php:284)