Up and Up and Up

Our new building has not just one but two elevators. In the houses we currently rent, many students and staff aren’t able to use the upper floors because all we have are stairs and they can’t do stairs (especially ours, which are extremely steep).

So we are excited to be moving to a building with two artfully designed sets of stairs, two lifts and one dramatic beauty queen of a ramp.

Lifts take a long time to install. First the shaft has to be built. Then there’s the hoistway, traction machine, cables, counterweights and controls – to say nothing of the cabin and the doors. The Otis Elevator Co. crew worked for over a month on the installation and they were a serious and professional team. Never once did I have to remind them to wear their helmets. Safety seems to run in their blood.

When it was done to their satisfaction and I had taken my first ride, I sent a photograph to Subhash Chandra Vashishth, our access consultant, to make sure we had his approval. After praising several elements, he said: “You need a mirror on the back wall.”

I’ve always appreciated elevator mirrors. If you’re heading for an important meeting, it’s nice to know you don’t have spinach stuck in your teeth and your hair isn’t wildly askew. But I was surprised when Subhash said we NEEDED one. – he’s not a frivolous kind of guy.

Turns out it’s not frivolous at all. Mirrors in lifts are required by the Building Code. For a wheelchair user, sometimes the only way out of a lift is backwards. Anyone who drives knows the importance of the rearview mirror when reversing. It’s the same thing for a wheelchair.

So, as usual, when you plan for the most vulnerable, the world works better for everyone. The law makes it safe for a wheelchair to back out and for ALL of us to fix our hair, our lipstick and our spinach teeth.

I do love India’s National Building Code. ❤️ 💛 💙