Preface

This is the second edition of CSA Standard 3355 (now CAN/CSA—8355), Elevating Devices for the Handicapped. It supersedes the first edition published in 1981 as CAN3—B355-M81, Safety Code for Elevating Devices for the Handicapped.

This Standard was developed in response to an ever-increasing realization by society that public facilities should be made available to the handicapped so that they can live as independently as possible.

In an effort to encourage rehabilitation of the world's millions of handicapped persons, the United Nations proclaimed 1981 as the International Year of Disabled Persons. Standards-developing organizations had been working for several years to help the handicapped. By 1981 significant affirmative action employment policies had been implemented at the federal and provincial government levels in concert with the enactment of legislation requiring the provision of adequate facilities to make public buildings reasonably accessible to the handicapped. This movement resulted in the marketing of a variety of devices designed to lift handicapped people between different levels in buildings where the use of a regular elevator would not be practical or economically feasible. B355 is intended for use by designers, manufacturers, users, and regulatory authorities to ensure that such elevating devices can be used safely.

Scope:

1.1
This Standard specifies minimum requirements for the design, construction, installation, operation, inspection, and testing of elevating devices that are to be specifically used by handicapped persons travelling between fixed points of a building or structure, with a view to safeguarding against risk of accidents associated with the operation of such equipment.

1.2
Elevating devices covered in this Standard are as follows:
(a) enclosed vertical platform lifts;
(b) unenclosed vertical platform lifts;
(c) stair chair lifts;
(d) enclosed stair platform lifts; and
(e) unenclosed stair platform lifts.

1.3
This Standard does not apply to the location of, access to, and usage of lifts for the handicapped, which may be regulated by the regulatory authority, nor to elevating devices covered by CSA Standard CAN3-B44.