3.

Passages and Stairs There are two types of user that will use the stairs: the normal person and person with disabilities such as ambulant disabled people and sight impaired people. In order to ensure the stairs can be universally used, the minimum clear width between both left and right handrail should be 900mm. However at the middle landing of the staircase, the width should be 1200mm. If the width is below the minimum requirement than it is not a universal design and will cause trouble to person with disability to use it, especially during emergency period.

The figure shows the design guideline for universal staircase. Source: MS 1184: 2002

The main characteristic of the user, especially people with sight impaired, the person will use stick to help them explore their surrounding, providing them information through touching the surrounding, while ambulant disabled people will use crutches. For normal person, there is no specific characteristic generally. For the person with sight impaired, guiding blocks need to be provided in order to warn them the distance from the drop of the staircase. It should be offset 300mm from the first tread. For the ambulant disabled people, the staircase need to be equipped with continuous handrail at both left and right side of the staircase, with the distance from the floor should be 840-900mm only.

The figure shows the design guideline for universal staircase. Source: MS 1184: 2002

The figure shows the design guideline for guiding block. Source: MS 1184: 2002

4. Elevators In term of the cage and size of the elevator, in order to ensure it can be universally used, the dimension should consider the space for wheel chair to enter the cage and do 360 rotation in the cage. For the door opening of the cage, it should be in minimum 800mm clean width. The lift lobby should have clear space of 1800-2000mm from the elevator's door. The minimum space dimension within the elevator should be 1800x1800mm (from the middle point of the cage's wall). In terms of the number of wheel chair users, it seems that only one person with wheel chair can use the elevator in one time.

The figure shows the requirement of elevator for wheelchair person. Source: MS 1184: 2002

5. Toilets All toilets must consider for the use of the disabled people and it must be multifunctional. In order to make a multifunctional toilet for the disabled, the cubicle should consist of wash basin, water closets and shower. This is the table to ensure sufficient number of cubicle

The table shows the minimum cubicles needed. Source: MS 1184: 2002