05Compliant by default, audited on demand.
Reviews against Part M, accessibility standards and the Official Languages Act, with a clear, prioritised remediation plan.
In short
A signage accessibility audit is a measured survey of an existing building against Part M, BS 8300 and, for public bodies, the Official Languages Act. We record contrast, light levels, mounting heights, letter sizes and tactile and braille provision, then hand you a schedule of findings sorted into a prioritised, costed plan of fixes.
We audit existing buildings against the strictest accessibility and legislative standards (Part M, BS 8300, inclusive-design guidance and bilingual requirements) and deliver a prioritised plan to put things right.
For new work, the same standards are the baseline, certified on completion.
01Why it matters
Nothing about most failing signs was wrong the day they went up. Weather fades the legend, a department is renamed and an A4 page goes over the door plate, a new paint colour takes the contrast away. An audit is how a building finds out what the years have done to it.
Every finding is written to the same shape: photograph, location on plan, the measurement, the requirement it fails, the remedy. A finding that can't be defended is worth nothing, so contrast is a reading, not an opinion, and the guidance is quoted by clause.
A list of forty equal failures gets read once and filed. Ours are sorted into statutory and safety-critical, high-traffic and housekeeping, so you can fix the urgent items this quarter and procure the rest properly, on the evidence.
Councils, the HSE, colleges and other public bodies also answer to the Disability Act 2005 and to the bilingual requirements of the Official Languages Act. We test against both in the same walk, so you aren't commissioning two surveys of one building.
02How we do it
The same sequence on every project, run by our own teams, so nothing falls between packages.
We ask for live floor plans, any existing signage schedule, previous access reports, the complaints log and the hours the building is genuinely used. If there is no signage schedule, that goes down as the first finding.
Arrival, entrance, reception, lift lobby and the accessible route to two or three real destinations, then back to the car park. The return trip is nearly always the worst-served journey in the building.
We walk it again from a wheelchair user's eye line, with a hand searching for tactile signage at the height it should be. Every element that carries information is photographed, located on plan and measured: LRV, illuminance at the sign face, mounting height, letter height against viewing distance, tactile relief and braille.
A marginal contrast reading is repeated at the sign's own illuminance before it is recorded as a failure, and buildings used into the evening are measured again after dark.
Findings come back inside a fortnight, each with its evidence, the clause it fails and an indicative cost band, sorted into statutory and safety-critical, high-traffic and housekeeping.
Where remedial work follows, the audit schedule becomes the brief for the replacement signage and then its acceptance test. We certify on completion, so the document that recorded the failure also records the fix.
03What you receive
What lands on your desk, ready to price, approve and build from.
04Standards
The standards and regulations this work is designed to. Compliance is the baseline, not an upsell.
A single mid-sized building, such as a health centre, school or civic office, takes a day to a day and a half on site, with the report following inside a fortnight. Campuses scale with the number of buildings, entrances and accessible routes rather than with floor area.
The audit itself isn't mandated, but the standards it tests against are. Part M applies to new buildings and material alterations, BS 8300 supplies the detailed guidance behind it, and public bodies carry further duties under the Disability Act 2005 and the Official Languages Act. An audit tells you where you stand before a project, a complaint or a tender forces the question.
No. A large share of findings are fixed by remounting, removing or reprinting a panel into an existing frame. Full replacement only makes sense when repair would cost more than new manufacture, or when a refurbishment brings the building into scope anyway.
A wayfinding audit asks whether a stranger can find their destination; an accessibility audit asks whether a stranger with low vision, a wheelchair user or someone reading by touch can find it too, and measures the answer against statutory standards. We often walk the two together.
BS 8300 guidance works to a difference of 30 LRV points between lettering and sign face, and between the sign and the wall behind it. We measure it with an instrument under the light the sign actually sits in, never by eye.
Text set entirely in capitals is the single most common one. After that come brushed metal lettering on pale walls, tactile signs mounted at head height or on the hinge side of the door, braille too shallow to read, and paper notices taped over permanent signs.
Yes, for the signage we supply and install. Remedial work is measured against the same schedule that recorded the failures, and we sign the certificate on completion so it can go straight into the building's file.
07Insights
A tape, a light meter and a day on site. What we actually measure when we audit a building's signage, and how the findings become a prioritised plan.
Certification is evidence, not assurance. Contrast, tactile relief and mounting position: measured, recorded, and handed over with the building.
The British Standard behind accessible signage: what BS 8300 covers, how it pairs with Part M, and the clauses that decide whether a sign works.
Two colours can look boldly different and measure nearly the same. LRV is how signage contrast is really specified, and 30 points is the line that matters.
Braille signage only works if a hand can find it. The grades, the millimetres, the mounting heights and the manufacturing methods behind signs read by touch.
Most buildings were never designed to be navigated. They grew. A step-by-step method for finding out where a building loses people, and why.
Accessibility & compliance audits
Approvals cut from months to days, typically around 20% off the wayfinding package, and one supplier from design to installation.
