Designing illumination for vertical ingress and egress paths requires reconciliation of competing requirements of safety economy:
Consistent and Adequate Lighting: Shadows and dark spots should be minimized to prevent trips and falls.
Light Direction and Glare: Light fixtures should be positioned to avoid creating excessive contrast between steps.
Staircase Configuration: Staircases come in various shapes, sizes, and configurations, such as straight, curved, or spiral.
Light Distribution: Lighting should adequately cover the entire stair tread and riser area to provide clear visibility and depth perception.
Energy Efficiency: Specifying energy-efficient light sources such as light emitting diodes and lighting controls such as motion sensors or timers.
Maintenance and Durability: Scaffolding safety should be a peak consideration.
Some of the foregoing challenges can be resolved with the use of handrail illumination but are accompanied by additional electrical wiring requirements.
Chazen Museum of Art | University of Wisconsin
The parent standard in the United States for designing and building facilities for accessibility is ANSI/A117.1 Standard for Accessible and Usable Buildings and Facilities developed by the International Code Council. During 2023 this title will be revised but until then he 2017 release is the stabilized edition:
FREE ACCESS (ICC DIGITAL CODE PLATFORM)
Many A117.1 concepts require coordination with the International Building Code. We provide an example regarding stairway illumination below:
BCAC General 5 – IBC A117.1 Coordination 11-20-1027 File 16-124
We walked through this earlier in 2020. It is noteworthy because the proposed safety concepts will likely require harmonization with NFPA and IEEE standards bibliography. Committees usually take it upon themselves to get that right but getting it right means all committees need to work bi-directionally; action that is limited by time resources of volunteers.
Technical specifics in meeting the US Department of Justice requirements for accessibility is close coupled with A117 since it is incorporated by reference into federal law. 2021/2022 Code Development Cycle has been completed and another cycle has begun:
2024/2025/2026 ICC CODE DEVELOPMENT SCHEDULE
ICC (ASC A117) CONSENSUS COMMITTEE ON A117.1 04-27-2023 Minutes 31
Since the ICC catalog cuts across many disciplines we touch most titles almost every day at 15:00 UTC; open to everyone with the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.
Issue: [13-36] and [16-124]
Category: Architectural, Risk Management
Colleagues: Richard Robben
FYI: Errata to 2017 Edition:
