Posted By Carolyn Dark I have an office that is currently not used by any disabled members of staff, but this may change. Does anyone have any idea how we can evacuate disabled persons from a lower ground floor office, in the centre of London, where there is a gap round the edge of the building of approximatey 1 metre, so no room outside to act as a safe area. There are no protected lifts in this building. Can anyone advise me what to do??

Posted By Phil Roberts Carolyn, Building regulations Document "M" is all about access and egress for disabled persons. A copy can be obtained free online from the Deputy Prime Ministers web site at:- http://www.safety.odpm.gov.uk/bregs/brads.htm hope this is of some use best regards Phil Roberts

Posted By Eric Burt It depends on the type of disability but for transport of a disabled employee involving stairs you may wish to consider the use of a paraid chair. They have a website if you need further details - www.paraid.co.uk Regards, Eric Burt

Posted By John Murphy Carolyn We had a similar problem in one of our day care centres. We moved the wheel chair user and their facilities to the ground floor and the ambulent to the first (or in your case the lower ground). just an idea John

Posted By Ken Taylor Thanks for the information, Mark. I have located Ferno's website and see a 'stairclimber' type evacuation chair on http://emergency.ferno.com/chairs/model_49.htm which appears to operate on the same lines as a 'staiclimber' trolley. The effort required to move a human load in this way would appear to call for a two person operation (whereas the normal evac-chair downhill operation is a relatively easy one person job) but it would certainly seem worthwhile if two trained and competent persons can be available to enable the non-ambulant person to escape up a stairway.