Safe as well as Accessible, for All

What were the issues?

An issue of accessibility for wheelchair users into a supermarket’s petrol station was raised by a customer.  The petrol stations’ shop was not accessible, however there was a night pay facility outside the petrol station and the supermarket itself, which was fully accessible to wheelchair users, was next door.  The supermarket felt that these facilities were satisfactory but the customer did not and wrote to the local press about his complaint.  The customer also researched his view of what should be provided and gave a copy of the specification for a ramp to be fitted to the filling station to the Store Manager.

Our solution:

Virosafe was invited by the Supermarket to review the customer’s findings and provide an estimate of cost for the work to be carried out.  Virosafe immediately identified that if the ramp specified by the customer was fitted, all customers entering and leaving the petrol station would be at risk from the flow of traffic (because the acceptable tolerance level of the ramp would mean the ramp would end in an area of the forecourt that vehicles used when leaving the fuel pumps), the ramp would have to be built across man chambers housing all the electrical services for the forecourt and its location would have rendered the night pay facility inaccessible to all customers.

The outcome …

Virosafe identified an alternative solution - that of building a ramp to the side of the filling station, providing access to the rear of the shop.  A raised level landing off the ramp was also built to make the night pay facility accessible.  Virosafe also supplied and fitted a handrail around the building, highlighted demarcation zones and supplied and fitted signage advising disabled customers to use the ramp to access the store or the night pay.  The solution also facilitated stock delivery as staff used the rear entrance to take in deliveries in the less busy part of the shop (helped along by the provision of a small trolley park to the side of the store, provided by Virosafe at no extra charge, used for storing empty stock cages). 

In a twist to the tale, however, the customer refused to accept the solution that had been provided and sought support from the Disability Rights Commission (DRC).   Virosafe was invited to provide a report to (what was) the DRC, on behalf of the supermarket, explaining how the solution had been arrived at.  The DRC’s view was that the work that had been done was the appropriate and safe solution.

The images below show before (on the left) we undertook the remedial work and after (on the right) we had completed the improvements.