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The publication of the original BS8300 in October 2001 thrust the issue of Accessibility to the top of the agenda for many specifiers and clients, unfortunately this original Code of Practice also created many concerns, often identifying issues and problems, without providing solutions or guidance in how to solve them, this was further exacerbated by the amendment of Approved Document M – Access to and use of buildings, in 2004, as this included conflicting guidance, most noticeably concerning opening forces and visual contrast.

BS8300 was amended in June 2005 in an effort to clarify some of these more critical conflicts of guidance, and this was supported by an addition of an FAQ section to the Approved Document M website, which mirrored the guidance relating to LRV’s, opening forces and effective clear widths found in the amended BS8300, however, it was felt that a better understanding of the impact this standard has on users, designers, specifiers and manufacturers, and the availability of new information and data warranted a complete overhaul of this standard, consequently the BS8300 BSI committee was reconvened early 2006.

In March 2009 a fully revised version of the standard will be published following a comprehensive overview of the content. This document includes heavily modified guidance on doors and ironmongery, much of this relates to a relaxation in design, allowing a more flexible approach to the specification, there is also more information provided on means of escape, with reference to the new BS9999. It should also be noted that this new Code of Practice does specifically identify that the guidance does not apply to individual dwellings.

The following is a summary of the more important changes:

Handrail design
 Circular handrails to have diameters of between 32mm and 45mm
 Guidance on fixing and selection of materials in hot and cold environments included.

Effective clear widths
These have been brought into line with ADM:
 Preferred and Minimum widths, amended to minimum widths for New Buildings and Existing Buildings.
 Note identifies 926mm leaf width meets 800mm and 825mm effective clear width where door opens beyond 900

Vision panels
Main area of concern here related to the unnecessarily restrictive nature of the permissible vision panel designs, resulting in only very institutional type designs being acceptable. The new document allows the area of glass permitted in the original standard to be achieved using multiple panels and alternative shapes, allowing much more design freedom this can be a real advantage to the specifier as traditionally vision panels are often used as a signature for the building.

Door opening furniture
Again the aim here was to correct some of the obvious errors, and where possible relax the requirements to allow a more flexible approach to the design and use of door opening furniture. The changes relate to lever and pull handle positions, size and design:

Size and position
The Figure 17 in the current BS8300 identifies the principles for door furniture, however, although the intention was for guidance and demonstration purposes only, in reality many specifiers, and manufacturers alike have been unwilling to stray beyond the very restrictive dimension and shapes shown, consequently pull handles have invariably been 400mm high, round bar design.  

The revised guidance moves away from fixed positions for the vertical pull handles, giving only minimum heights for the top fixing of 1300mm and maximum height of 1000mm and minimum height of 700mm for the bottom fixing, effectively allowing a minimum 300mm pull handle. The diameter of a pull handle remains at 19mm- 35mm, but the revised BS8300 does recommend against the use of pull handles on the push face.

The positions of lever furniture have also been changed to 800-1050mm, with 900mm being the preferred height. This change addresses some of the conflicts in the earlier document and accommodates the handle positions identified in HTM 59. The requirement for 400mm high kickplates has also been removed.
   
Lever furniture design
Again Figure 17 in the current BS8300 has resulted in a very restricted design of handles, invariably limited to round-bar, return-to-door on the majority of projects,  in reality this was only one example of a desirable design with others offering similar criteria also being acceptable. In an effort to address this four examples of acceptable design have been added, this should greatly increase the opportunity for design. Cranked pull handles and lever furniture for narrow stile doors have also been included.

Visual contrast
This is an area of considerable change, resulting in amendments to the guidance in BS8300 and the creation of a new standard, BS8493: 2008 – Light reflectance value (LRV) – Method of test. This new standard allows manufacturers to establish an LRV value for their products

The main change in the guidance on visual contrast in the new BS8300 relates to the LRV points difference between door opening furniture and the face of the door. The current BS8300 and ADM require a contrast of greater than 30 points between these two elements. To put this in perspective, as the LRV scale runs from 0 for theoretical total black and 100 for perfect white, this represents a substantial difference; especially as the majority of timber veneers and natural metal ironmongery occupy the middle ground for LRV values. However, on the basis that the door opening furniture is a 3-D form (giving light and shade) generally has a shiny finish and is limited in its possible location, a relaxation to 15 points difference has been agreed. This does still restrict the use of some metal furniture with selected veneers, but does make the selection process of door finish and handle material a little easier.

A further area of clarification relates to the leading edges of doors, either held-open or not self-closing, where the use of a 15mm wide contrasting strip (30 points) has been identified as acceptable. 

Reduced-swing doorsets
The new BS8300 recognises that reduced-swing doorsets increase manoeuvrability in and out of rooms, such as wc’s and bathrooms. ADM has recognised the advantages of reduced-swing for sometime.

Looking ahead, clarification is required as to how/if Approved Document M will be updated to take into account this greatly improved guidance. There is also the threat of International, or possibly European accessibility guidance being published…but that’s for another day.