Specifications & Requirements

Relevant Standards & Codes

BCA & Australian Standards

All standard signs supplied by Bractile Signs are fully compliant with BCA 2016 Volume One, Section D3.6, of the Building Code of Australia and Australian Standards AS1428.1.

The following is an extract from National Construction Code (NCC) 2016 BCA Volume One - used with permission from the Australian Building Codes Board ABCB/NCC.

NCC 2016 Building Code of Australia - Volume One

D3.6 Signage

In a building required to be accessible—

(a) braille and tactile signage complying with Specification D3.6 must—

(i) incorporate the international symbol of access or deafness, as appropriate, in accordance with AS 1428.1 and identify each—

(A) sanitary facility, except a sanitary facility within a sole-occupancy unit in a Class 1b or Class 3 building; and

(B) space with a hearing augmentation system; and
(ii) identify each door required by E4.5 to be provided with an exit sign and state—
(A)"Exit"; and
(B)"Level" ; and either
(aa) the floor level number; or
(bb) a floor level descriptor; or
(cc) a combination of (aa) and (bb); and

(b) signage including the international symbol for deafness in accordance with AS 1428.1 must be provided within a room containing a hearing augmentation system identifying—
(i) the type of hearing augmentation; and
(ii) the area covered within the room; and
(iii) if receivers are being used and where the receivers can be obtained; and

(c) signage in accordance with AS 1428.1 must be provided for accessible unisex sanitary facilities to identify if the facility is suitable for left or right handed use; and

(d) signage to identify an ambulant accessible sanitary facility in accordance with AS 1428.1 must be located on the door of the facility; and

(e) where a pedestrian entrance is not accessible, directional signage incorporating the international symbol of access, in accordance with AS 1428.1 must be provided to direct a person to the location of the nearest accessible pedestrian entrance; and

(f) where a bank of sanitary facilities is not provided with an accessible unisex sanitary facility, directional signage incorporating the international symbol of access in accordance with AS 1428.1 must be placed at the location of the sanitary facilities that are not accessible, to direct a person to the location of the nearest accessible unisex sanitary facility.

SPECIFICATION D3.6 BRAILLE AND TACTILE SIGNS

Scope
This Specification sets out the requirements for the design and installation of braille and tactile signage as required by D3.6

Location of braille and tactile signs
Signs including symbols, numbering and lettering must be designed and installed as follows:

(a) Braille and tactile components of a sign must be located not less than 1200 mm and not higher than 1600 mm above the floor or ground surface.

(b) Signs with single lines of characters must have the line of tactile characters not less than 1250 mm and not higher than 1350 mm above the floor or ground surface.

(i) on the wall on the latch side of the door with the leading edge of the sign located between 50 mm and 300 mm from the architrave; and
(ii) where (i) is not possible, the sign may be placed on the door itself.

(d) Signs identifying a door required by E4.5 to be provided with an exit sign must be located—
(i) on the side that faces a person seeking egress; and
(ii) on the wall on the latch side of the door with the leading edge of the sign located between 50 mm and 300 mm from the architrave; and
(iii) where (ii) is not possible, the sign may be placed on the door itself.

Braille and tactile sign specification

(a) Tactile characters must be raised or embossed to a height of not less than 1 mm and not more than 1.5 mm.

(b) Sentence case (upper case for the first letter of each main word and lower case for all other letters) must be used for all tactile characters, and—
(i) upper case tactile characters must have a height of not less than 15 mm and not more than 55 mm, except that the upper case tactile characters on a sign identifying a door required by E4.5 to be provided with an exit sign must have a height of not less than 20 mm and not more than 55 mm; and
(ii) lower case tactile characters must have a height of 50% of the related upper case characters.

(d) The entire sign, including any frame, must have all edges rounded.

(e) The background, negative space or fill of signs must be of matt or low sheen finish.

(f) The characters, symbols, logos and other features on signs must be matt or low sheen finish.

(g) The minimum letter spacing of tactile characters on signs must be 2 mm.

(h) The minimum word spacing of tactile characters on signs must be 10 mm.

(i) The thickness of letter strokes must be not less than 2 mm and not more than 7 mm.

(j) Tactile text must be left justified, except that single words may be centre justified.

(k) Tactile text must be Arial typeface.

Luminance contrast

The following applies to luminance contrast:

(a) The background, negative space, fill of a sign or border with a minimum width of 5 mm must have a luminance contrast with the surface on which it is mounted of not less than 30%.

(b) Tactile characters, icons and symbols must have a minimum luminance contrast of 30% to the surface on which the characters are mounted.

Lighting

Braille and tactile signs must be illuminated to ensure luminance contrast requirements are met at all times during which the sign is required to be read.

Braille
The following applies to braille:

(a) Braille must be grade 1 braille (uncontracted) in accordance with the criteria set out by the Australian Braille Authority.

(b) Braille must be raised and domed.

(d) Braille must be left justified.

(e) Where an arrow is used in the tactile sign, a solid arrow must be provided for braille readers.

(f) On signs with multiple lines of text and characters, a semicircular braille locator at the left margin must be horizontally aligned with the first line of braille text.