‘Open Sesame’ to Historic Buildings with Innovation Awards

It is an unavoidable fact that many historical buildings have no facility for easy and unobtrusive access at their main entrance.

Invisible magic

Sesame Access demonstrate true innovation by turning this problem into an opportunity;  re-engineering the steps of the building into a discrete, quiet, and retractable wheelchair lift.  This ensures architects, historians, and wheelchair users’ needs are all met by a hidden mechanism for a wheelchair lift which, when not in use, maintains the original step feature, protecting the architectural aesthetics of the building.

With a unique selling point of the lifts being ‘invisible’, they are described by users as stylish with ‘a touch of magic’.

Pubs: where the best ideas are born

This particular innovation was sparked by a hydraulic engineer whilst in a pub.  He was listening to a friend complain of his wife’s problems accessing buildings because she was a wheelchair user.   After some inventing and prototyping, the first wheelchair lift was installed in 1996- and is still working well.

Sesame Access have now installed over 100 lifts in UK & Europe including English Heritage buildings, Oxford University, Cambridge University, Kensington Palace, Tate Britain, Eton College, Institution of Civil Engineers, UK Supreme Court, and Sotheby’s Paris.

Innovation in invention and design

Now, 20 years later, Sesame Access win a Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Innovation thanks to their continuous innovation and development in the invention, design, and performance of their access-for-all products.

For more Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Innovation winners, read about:
The Mobile Vet
Darktrace’s Cyber Immune System
Preclinical Imaging Innovation

For further information on how our innovation consultants can develop your innovation strategy and help you connect and collaborate, please contact our team on: 0121 250 5717 or email: [email protected].