With designs which are often quirky and stylish it’s easy to see why stramps catch the eye, but to accept them as accessible is as reckless as it gets.
Indeed, there’s a strong case for all stramp installations to be accompanied by signage directing disabled and non-disabled people to a safer alternative. That could be either steps or a ramp, because what stramps actually deliver is the worst of both worlds.
As the name suggests, stramps are a hybrid of steps and ramps. And as we haven’t found any evidence to suggest that they were actually designed with the intention of improving accessibility, we like to think they are there to intrigue and entertain as a concrete combination of horizontal and diagonal lines.
That said, some have suggested that even looking at stramps could create problems for people who have visual impairments, and that’s something to bear in mind.
Stramps have left some people starstruck with geometric joy as they celebrate a “stylish compromise between stairs and ramp” or cheer “how modern day design has learnt to develop in a way that handicapped people can benefit!” (That’s their exclamation mark and our italics).
But another online poster said “it became obvious that this is a death trap for anybody who uses a wheelchair”. They went on to explain about the need for railings, and they alluded to the requirement for a level area, where people using the ramp can pause if they need to. We’ll come to that.
The comment which struck us as the most perceptive was that when people design things they don’t always understand the needs of the people who will be using them. They should take the time to think through the nature of the product and the needs of the users, so let’s see if we can help with that.
If you Google “stramps”, first of all you might have to do it more than once because first time round you’re likely to end up with a selection of postage stamps. Soon enough though you’ll come across the zig zags of ramps of dubious gradients cutting across steps of variable height.
We haven’t yet seen any images showing hordes of people clamouring to use the stramps but that doesn’t surprise us. Our first thought is always of a piece we wrote a couple of years ago bemoaning the awarding of design prizes to developments which were clearly inaccessible.
With stramps, the shortcomings should be obvious, so here are a few of them.
The correct design of the steps should include risers which have even-height, and treads with a uniform depth. There should also be handrails on both sides of the flight of steps, and where they are more than two metres wide there should be a handrail in the middle.
As soon as you put a ramp through the middle of those steps you introduce variable height to the risers and you are no longer consistent with the tread depth.
Also, you can no longer have handrails alongside the steps because they will interfere with the users of the ramps. So you now have a flight of steps which people have to take extra care when using so they don’t slip or fall or trip.
The ramp should have handrails on both sides. These are not to help a wheelchair user to pull themselves up the ramp, but they provide essential support for anybody who needs to stop and rest along the way.
However, if you put handrails on either side of the ramp as you should, you can no longer use the steps. If the various elements are installed properly, the ramps will obstruct the steps and the steps will obstruct the ramps.
There’s more. The ramps should also have an upstand on either side for the entire length to prevent a wheelchair user falling off the edge but, again, if you want to provide that you can no longer use the steps because it creates a trip hazard. Also, with the stramps we’ve seen, the turning space is inadequate, with or without the safety railings.
So for these reasons and others our view is that stramps should never, ever be designed and that they raise the question for Building Control and approved inspectors of why these features are approved and on what grounds.
Stramps look interesting and eye-catching and modern but it’s classic example of form over function. The designers think they are being clever but it simply shows they don’t understand how people use these features and what they need from them. The users don’t have a choice in that.
We have seen a number of examples of these and what the developers should do is provide ramps and steps separately. In the worst case scenario provide a lift, but make sure it is up to standard.
