Ramps and edges

A raised deck defines the stand — and decides who can enter it

A raised floor solves problems below and creates one at every perimeter: an abrupt step that is both a trip hazard and a barrier to wheelchair users, anyone with a mobility aid, and visitors pulling roller luggage. Solve it wrong and the stand fails a legal access requirement. Solve it badly and the solution becomes the new hazard.

Most venues enforce national accessibility standards — in Germany the relevant framework is rooted in DIN 18040, in the UK in Part M of the Building Regulations — and most organiser contracts require compliance before load-in is approved. The specific threshold height that triggers a ramp obligation varies, but 6 mm is a common hard limit for an unramped edge. A typical exhibition deck runs between 60 mm and 100 mm. That gap is always a ramp problem, never an exception.

The ramp itself has to be shallow enough to be negotiable — a 1:12 gradient is the figure most frameworks converge on — and wide enough that a wheelchair user does not have to approach on the diagonal. 900 mm clear width is the practical floor; 1,100 mm is better. These dimensions eat into stand area, and they need to be in the drawing before anyone prices timber, because retrofitting a compliant ramp into a tight corner after the deck is specified is miserable and expensive.

Edge treatment is the other discipline. A sharp deck edge at 80 mm is a predictable ankle-height collision. Bevelled or bullnose timber edge sections reduce the injury severity and give the finish a considered look rather than a raw cut. Contrast edging — a strip in a colour or material distinct from the deck surface — is the detail most stands omit and should not: a visitor reading the room at speed will not clock a flush edge until they have already caught their foot on it.

The ramp position also governs traffic flow in a way many designers underweight. A ramp at the narrow end of a stand funnels visitors; one along the long face invites them. Where you put the accessible entry is effectively where you put the entrance, because that is the route that works for everyone.

Detail the ramp in the same drawing package as the deck cable routing. Both are decisions made once, before the floor goes down, and neither is recoverable without pulling boards.