ACCESS WATCH:    " K W S P "  BUILDINGS               

We visited this building on the 25th April
2005. Since By-Laws 34A of the Uniform
Building By Laws of Malaysia stipulates
that all existing and new buildings must
be accessible to disabled people, we
wanted to ensure that this new building
has no access problem.

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There is a gentle ramp at the front entrance of the building. (At the right side of the picture, in front of the guard.)

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The ramp can be viewed from inside of
the building. There are handrails at both
sides of the ramp.

Car parks for disabled people are located next to the back entrance. (See the yellow markings on the car park floor.) We feel that the markings are not prominent enough. There should be additional signs to remind people that the two car parks are strictly for disabled people. A gentle ramp leads us to the back door.  There are handrails at both sides of the ramp. But we cannot understand why the car parks are not located beside the front door.

We do not have problem inside the flat
and spacious building.
We feel that the
signage may not be clear enough for
hearing impaired persons. 
We are happy
with the lift buttons which are lowered
for
the ease of use of wheelchair users.
The embossed numbers beside the lift
buttons are useful to the visually
impaired people and the elderly persons.

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It is commendable that toilet for disabled
people is
available at every floor
of the 
 building.Shown here is the layout of
the toilet.

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We like the tall mirror that is big enough
when a person stands up or sits down on
a wheelchair. The lever-type tap (see red
arrow)is very good for people who have
problems with their fingers.
The basin is of correct size and design,
leaving a lot of space below the basin
for knee and foot clearance for wheelchair
users.

The lever-type toilet door handle is
another plus
point for the design of 
this toilet.

However, we consider the permanently
fixed
 support bar (see red arrow) as a
major design
fault in this toilet.
This support bar will obstruct wheelchair
user who uses the lateral transfer method
to transfer on to the toilet bowl.

This drawing illustrates how the lateral transfer method is done.

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We recommend that the fixed support
bar should
be replaced by the upward
-folding support bar that is attached at
the other side of the toilet bowl.
We also recommend that an additional
¡§L¡¨ sharp grab bar be installed next to
the toilet paper.
(Please refer to our
¡§Accessibility¡¨ section for the detail
dimension of this grab bar.)

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We wish to congratulate the building owner and architect for considering the
needs of
the disabled persons in designing this building. 
We hope that our comments here will enable them to build better facilities
for the disabled.