An accessible outdoor route: width, gradient and cues

The outdoor route is the first link in accessibility: the one that leads from the public highway to a building's entrance or connects the features of a public space. Its rules are precise, because a poorly designed route excludes before you have even reached the door.

Width and surface

An accessible route offers a sufficient clear width, in the order of 1.40 metres, to allow a wheelchair to pass and turn. The surface must be firm, non-slip and free of obstacles for the wheel: loose paving, wide-mesh grates and holes are all traps.

Gradient and step-ups

Gradients are limited in principle to 5%, with rest landings beyond a certain length. Step-ups are tolerated up to 2 centimetres, rounded or chamfered. Beyond that, a purpose-built ramp becomes necessary. These thresholds, often exceeded by a few centimetres, are the most common cause of non-conformity.

Wayfinding and guidance

Accessibility is not only about wheelchairs. Guidance strips help visually impaired people follow a route, and tactile warning strips signal a hazard, such as a crossing or a staircase. Good visual contrast on obstacles and steps completes the arrangement.

An estate that keeps changing

A route that is compliant on the day it is handed over may cease to be: a surface that degrades, furniture added, a root that lifts the ground. Regular checking is therefore part of accessibility, just as much as design.

Parking, the first link

An accessible route often begins before the pavement, at the parking space. Regulations require a quota of adapted spaces, wider, sited as close as possible to the entrance and connected to it by an obstacle-free route. A reserved space that is badly placed, or cut off from the entrance by an impassable kerb, does not do its job. Thinking of parking and route as a whole, from the vehicle to the door, avoids the most common breaks in accessibility.

Crossings and kerb ramps

A route is interrupted at every street crossing. This is where defects cluster: a kerb ramp too high or missing, a step-up at the gutter, tactile warning strips missing at the crossing. A poorly built kerb ramp cancels the accessibility of a whole route, because it makes the crossing impossible in a wheelchair. These singular points deserve special attention during surveys.

Lighting and legibility

Accessibility is not limited to the ground. A poorly lit route becomes dangerous at nightfall, especially for people with low vision or older people. Good contrast on kerbs, steps and obstacles, legible signage and adequate lighting are an integral part of a genuinely accessible route, just like width and gradient.

Street furniture, a common obstacle

Benches, bollards, terraces, signs, bins: street furniture, often added afterwards, gradually reduces the width of routes and creates unforeseen obstacles. An advertising A-board put out every morning can be enough to block a passage. Recording the furniture present on routes, and checking that it preserves the required clear width, is part of tracking accessibility, just like the state of the surface.

Track your routes with KARTES

KARTES records routes and their singular points, with their characteristics and their condition. You locate non-conformities, you track accessibility works and you keep proof of every check, from the field survey to the dashboard.

Key points

• Clear width in the order of 1.40 m, firm and non-slip surface.
• Gradient limited to 5%, step-ups tolerated up to 2 cm.
• Guidance and warning strips for visually impaired people.
• A route degrades: regular checking is part of accessibility.