Wheelchair and Platform Lifts: Types and Accessibility Basics

Not every change of level has room for a full elevator or a gentle ramp. For short rises, buildings and homes use smaller devices: platform lifts that carry a person on a flat deck, and chairlifts that carry a seated rider along a staircase. This page describes those three device types, summarizes how the ASME A18.1 standard and the US accessibility rules treat them, and shows how one UK regulator frames the same equipment. It is a general guide only. Accessibility and safety rules depend on the building, the use and the place, and they are applied by the people responsible locally.

Three kinds of device

The vocabulary overlaps, so it helps to separate the types. The US Access Board's guide to the ADA Standards says that the ASME A18.1 standard recognizes two types of platform lifts: vertical platform lifts and inclined platform lifts. A third group, stairway chairlifts, is addressed by the same standard.

A vertical platform lift raises a platform straight up and down inside a runway (the enclosed path the platform travels in). The guide notes that ASME A18.1 limits the travel distance and that the platform size cannot exceed 18 square feet. An inclined platform lift travels along a stairway, and it can have a folding platform. It must be installed so that it does not encroach on required means of egress, the routes people use to leave a building. Passenger retaining arms are permitted as an alternative to a platform enclosure under the standard. A stairway chairlift has a fixed seat and no platform, and the rider transfers from a wheelchair or walks to the seat.

Washington State's elevator statute gives short legal definitions that match this split. A wheelchair lift is described as a lift that travels in a vertical or inclined direction and is designed for use by individuals with disabilities, and a stairway chair lift as one that travels in a basically inclined direction and is designed for the same users. Definitions differ elsewhere, but the pattern is common.

What ASME A18.1 covers

ASME A18.1 is titled the Safety Standard for Platform Lifts and Stairway Chairlifts. ASME's own catalog page says it presents guides for the design, construction, installation, operation, inspection, testing, maintenance, and repair of inclined stairway chairlifts and inclined and vertical platform lifts, and that it covers devices intended for transportation of a mobility-impaired person only, typically within household applications. The same page states that the standard's goal is to help protect public safety.

That catalog page also lists key changes in the 2023 edition, which shows how the standard keeps moving. They include a new section on maintenance, an emergency signaling arrangement with an audible device outside the platform and runway, and a requirement that residential inclines and stair chair lifts have a speed governor (or a design in which an overspeed cannot occur after a single failure of a drive component). A governor, here, is a device that detects excess speed and triggers a response. The full text of the standard is sold by ASME, so we describe it only as publicly summarized.

Platform lifts are one part of a wider picture of lifting equipment. The general principles behind elevators are in How elevators and lifts work, and home versions are discussed in Residential elevators and home lifts.

Accessibility basics: what the ADA Standards say about elevators

In the United States the 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design apply to new construction and alterations of covered facilities. Section 407, as published on ADA.gov, begins: "Elevators shall comply with 407 and with ASME A17.1." It adds that they shall be passenger elevators as classified by the elevator code, and that operation shall be automatic.

The section then sets out detail on what a rider meets. Call buttons must be raised or flush and at least 3/4 inch in the smallest dimension, with the up button above the down button. Doors are the horizontal sliding type with a reopening device, car gates are prohibited, and each car must have a self-leveling feature that holds the car within 1/2 inch of the floor landing. Floor designations on both hoistway jambs must be in tactile characters and braille, with characters at least 2 inches high. Audible and visible car position indicators are required. A centered-door car must have at least 80 inches of width and 51 inches of depth, with a 42 inch clear door. These are specific scoping and technical requirements, and they are summarized, not replaced, by this page.

The advisory under 407.1 adds a point for owners. It says that accessible features must be maintained in working order, and that failure to act promptly on repairs could constitute a violation of federal law. More on the maintenance side is in Inspection, maintenance and regulation explained.

When a platform lift is permitted

The ADA Standards treat a platform lift as an alternative that is allowed in listed situations, not as a general substitute for an elevator. Section 206.7 says platform lifts "shall be permitted" as part of an accessible route in new construction in specified cases. The Access Board's summary lists wheelchair spaces, performance areas and speakers' platforms, incidental spaces for five people or fewer that are not for public use, raised courtroom stations, levels within transient lodging guest rooms and residential dwelling units, certain recreation facilities, and places where existing exterior site constraints make a ramp or elevator infeasible. Platform lifts are also permitted as a component of an accessible route in existing buildings.

Section 410.1 sets the character of the equipment: platform lifts shall comply with ASME A18.1, "shall not be attendant-operated" and shall provide unassisted entry and exit. Doors and gates must be low-energy and power operated, and remain open for 20 seconds minimum. The advisory notes that an accessible route needs 80 inches of vertical clearance. The Access Board guide adds that stairway chairlifts cannot be used where platform lifts are permitted, because they require a transfer from wheeled mobility aids, and that portable lifts do not satisfy the Standards even if they comply with ASME A18.1. Chairlifts for swimming pools and spas are the stated exception.

A UK reference point

The UK Health and Safety Executive describes the same equipment through a different set of laws. It explains that stair lifts and platform lifts must meet requirements of either the Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 2008 or the Lift Regulations 2016 when first brought into use, and that stair lifts and slow platform lifts (below 0.15 m/s) come under the machinery regulations. Stair lifts in private dwellings are in most cases outside LOLER and PUWER, the rules for equipment used by people at work, but businesses that provide such equipment still carry safety responsibilities. Where stair lifts are used in workplaces or by visitors, HSE says that maintenance, inspection and six-monthly thorough examination may adequately discharge those duties.

The short version

Platform lifts and chairlifts fill the gap where an elevator or ramp does not fit, and ASME A18.1 is the standard that frames them. The ADA Standards allow platform lifts in listed cases and require unassisted, independent use. Rules differ by country, building and use, and local authorities and qualified professionals have the final word.