Continuous DDA Handrails: Why the Run Must Not Break

Watch how a visually impaired person uses a handrail and the design requirement becomes obvious. The hand stays on the rail. It slides. It does not lift off, feel around, and re-find the rail on the far side of an obstruction, because the rail is what is telling them where the route goes and where it ends.

That is why an accessible handrail has to be continuous, and why a standard key clamp handrail, built well, still isn’t one. Continuity is one of the requirements a compliant handrail has to meet.

What Continuity Is Actually For

A continuous rail does three jobs at once for a user with limited or no vision.

It gives the route. Following the rail tells you where the ramp turns, where the landing is, where the steps start. The rail is a map read by hand.

It keeps support unbroken. A user taking real weight through the rail cannot afford a gap. The moment of letting go to reach past an obstruction is the moment of highest risk, and it happens on a slope, which is where they least want it.

It doesn’t injure. A fitting projecting into the grip line catches knuckles at walking pace. A user who can see it moves their hand. A user who can’t, doesn’t.

Because the DDA range’s handrail runs unbroken, someone can follow it its entire length without an intermediate upright post interrupting the run or causing harm.

Why Standard Fittings Don’t Achieve It

Nothing wrong with a standard key clamp handrail. We sell a great many of them, and for industrial barriers and yard work they’re the right product.

The problem for an accessible route is geometry. In a standard assembly, the upright and the rail are often the same tube, joined by a fitting that sits around the outside of both. The fitting is proud of the tube surface. Where an upright meets the rail, the hand meets a lump, or the rail stops and restarts on the other side of a post.

For a sighted user steadying themselves on a warehouse step, that is a non-issue. For the person the Equality Act adjustment is being made for, it is the whole issue.

Our DDA range solves it with brackets. The DDA747 and DDA748 handrail brackets, each used with an A6-7 elbow or A2-7 short tee, carry the 42.4mm rail clear of the posts, and the elbows and connectors that turn and join the rail sit inside the tube. Nothing projects into the grip line. See why the rail is 42.4mm, or browse the DDA range.

The Fittings That Make a Run Continuous

Transitions Are Where Runs Break

A ramp handrail changes angle at least twice, at the bottom and top of the slope, and more if the ramp switches back. Every one of those is a place where a badly detailed rail becomes two rails.

The DDA09 internal variable elbow exists for exactly this. Its angle is variable, and with a pair of A9-7 internal connectors it carries the rail round the change of angle as a continuous member. On a ramp at 1:15 the angle change is small, but it is still a change, and a mitre or a butt joint at that point is a break in the run.

Corners work the same way. The DDA725 internal 90 degree elbow takes the rail round a landing without a lump in the grip line.

Joining Lengths

A long run is made from shorter tubes. The A9 internal connector joins them flush, so there is no lump in the grip line. It suits tube with a maximum wall thickness of 3.2mm, joints must be within 150mm of the nearest support, and it is not for joining tubes under extreme loads or a direct tensile load.

Plan the ends of each run too. A rail that stops in mid-air tells a visually impaired user nothing, so show on your layout where each run starts and stops and we will list the fittings to finish it.

Getting the Run Right on Your Layout

Continuity is a detailing problem, and detailing problems are easier to solve on a drawing than on site. Send us the layout (a drawing, a sketch or dimensioned photographs) and we’ll work out the fitting schedule, including the transitions and the terminations, and cut the tube to length before it ships.

Request a quote and we reply within one hour in working hours, or call 01905 779944.

Continuous Handrail FAQs

Why Does a DDA Handrail Have to Be Continuous?

So a visually impaired user can follow it from one end of the route to the other without losing contact. The rail carries route information, gives unbroken support, and must not present projections that catch the hand at walking pace.

Can I Build a DDA Handrail from Standard Key Clamp Fittings?

Standard fittings clamp around the outside of the tube and sit proud of it, and uprights typically interrupt the rail. That’s acceptable on an industrial barrier, but it breaks the run on an accessible route. The DDA range uses handrail brackets and internal fittings that keep the 42.4mm rail continuous and clear of the posts.

How Do You Turn a DDA Handrail Through a Corner?

With a DDA725 internal 90 degree elbow, which turns the 42.4mm tube inside the tube rather than with a fitting clamped round the outside.

How Do You Handle the Change of Angle at the Top and Bottom of a Ramp?

With a DDA09 internal variable elbow and a pair of A9-7 internal connectors, which carry the rail round the transition as a continuous member.

How Do You Join Lengths of Handrail?

With an A9 internal connector, which joins two tubes flush. Joints must be within 150mm of the nearest support, and it is not for joining tubes under extreme loads or a direct tensile load.