How to Improve Accessibility at Your Business Premises

Creating an environment that is welcoming and accessible to every employee and customer is vital to creating a positive and inclusive environment. You should ensure every user can access your building regardless of any disabilities or additional needs they may have. Creating an inclusive and accessible environment makes good business sense and encourages a positive and welcoming culture throughout your organization. If you like the idea of transforming your business into somewhere that is accessible and welcoming to every user, these tips should help you to get started:

Create an Accessible Entrance

Making sure your building is easy to access is vital, and it is your first step towards improving accessibility at your business premises. If you have an employee with a substantial disability, you may be required to make reasonable adjustments for your employee under the Equality Act 2010. Reasonable adjustments include changes such as installing ramps and handrails. So introducing solutions to make your entryway more accessible for people with a range of needs is essential. When people think about accessibility, they often simply consider wheelchair users but are unaware that most do not use wheelchairs. Research shows less than eight per cent of disabled people in the United Kingdom are wheelchair users. So while ramps are essential to provide access for people that use wheelchairs, considering the access needs of non-wheelchair users is also crucial. Having handrails and steps installed is an excellent way to offer an additional method of accessing your business. Using Precast concrete solutions from JKH Ltd to create low-profile custom steps can make it much easier for your employees and customers to access your building.

Keep up With Maintenance

Keeping your business well-maintained is essential if you hope to improve accessibility and make it an inclusive space. Taking care to ensure anything that could become a trip hazard is dealt with promptly is an excellent place to start. Uneven paving stones, carpet that has come untacked, or wet floors can potentially cause injuries, especially for partially-sighted customers.

As well as looking out for potential slip and trip hazards and maintaining your premises, it is also essential to keep up with tasks such as getting your elevators and automatic doors serviced regularly. Regular servicing is critical to ensure that this vital equipment is in working order and that employees and visitors that rely on these assistive features can access your building without issue.

Introduce Extra Parking Bays

Providing disabled parking bays and parent and child parking bays will help make life so much easier for your employees and visitors. Allowing customers with young children to park in wider spaces shows that your business is welcoming to all ages and cares about the needs of its customers. Creating Blue Badge spaces may be a legal requirement if you have disabled team members that need to use them.

As you can see, some minor changes to your business can have a significant positive impact on those that use your building, making the effort well worth it.

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