ACCESSIBILITY REPORTS
With my 15+ years' experience focused on access and facilities for persons with disabilities, you will be getting some of the most accurate and pragmatic accessibility advice available for your project.
The primary auditing and reporting services I offer are:
New build PROJECTS
Accessibility reports are increasingly getting requested by councils as part of a building consent application.
Typically these reports are used by the project team to make sure that accessibility has been addressed appropriately throughout the design process before it reaches consent stage, and often accompanies the building consent application alongside other specialist reports such as fire engineering.
Getting an accessibility report preemptively before applying for building consent can help reduce the risk of getting request for further information (RFI) time delays, and needing to make design amendments.
ALTERATION or CHANGE OF USE FOR EXISTING BUILDINGS
The services I offer for these projects have been structured around the Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment “Demonstrating and assessing compliance for buildings undergoing alterations” website. By following this approach and supplying the appropriate reports documenting them the Council is much more likely to be satisfied that the minimum requirements of the NZBA have been met by your building consent application.
These types of project involve preparing a GAP Analysis Report on the existing building which benchmarks its current accessibility provisions, and provides recommendations for upgrading these to meet current NZBC requirements 'as nearly as is reasonably practicable' (ANARP)
My interpretation of ANARP is that it is intended to achieve beneficial outcomes for the buildings accessibility for persons with disabilities without requiring an unreasonable level of sacrifice (cost) to be made by the building owner.
Through detailed assessment, and clear reporting with use of sacrifice-benefit analysis, it's more often than not that both the building owner and council will come to a satisfactory agreement as to what upgrades are reasonable and practical to undertake as part of the proposed work.
Best practice advice & Universal Design
Statistics show that one in four New Zealanders identify as having some form of disability. Considering this figure alongside our ageing population, and the relatively low bar for accessibility set by the NZ Building Code it is unsurprising that many organizations are realizing the value of exceeding code minimums and designing buildings with a people first focus.
Best practice & universal design provisions can be a cost neutral decision in many cases, and it's a great way to add usability and value to a building.
With my 15 years experience and extensive project history I am well placed to advise the most pragmatic and design sympathetic ways to get the most out of your project for its end users.
PEER Reviews
Be it critical, supportive or a mixture of both - sometimes it can be reassuring to have someone independent take a look at another party's work and give their comment on it.
CLARIFICATIONS / FAQ
SAL is fully independent, and receives no funding from third parties. This enables us to give completely unbiased minimum ‘code requirement’ advice to our clients, with no hidden agenda.
Only registered Building Consent Authorities (BCAs) have been permitted to perform certifying functions in terms of the Building Act 2004. Therefore my services do not include, or constitute 'compliance certification'.
I do not advise in residential 'private residential dwelling' accessibility matters.
