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NAEC CAT: Certification Programs (CET, CAT, QEI) - CAT: Certified Accessibility and Private Residence Lift Technician

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Certification Programs (CET, CAT, QEI) - CAT: Certified Accessibility and Private Residence Lift Technician

CAT (Certified Accessibility and Private Residence Lift Technician) is scoped to the equipment many jurisdictions regulate separately from commercial elevators: stairway chairlifts, platform lifts, and private residence elevators. Exam items test whether you can attach the right code document to the right device and recognize where the technician's authority stops.

Code scope

  • ASME A18.1 governs platform lifts and stairway chairlifts: runway and platform dimensions, clearances, gates and guarding, operating devices, and drive/control arrangements for hydraulic and battery-powered units.
  • ASME A17.1/CSA B44 governs private residence elevators.
  • Federal accessibility rules (the ADA Standards and related US Access Board guidance) determine where an accessibility lift is required; A18.1 determines whether the device itself is safe. Satisfying one is not satisfying the other.

What the exam tests

  • Installation in existing construction: anchorage, clearances, and the field adjustments that keep a device within A18.1.
  • Service and troubleshooting: hydraulic power units, batteries and chargers on DC chairlifts, limit switches, and obstruction/operating-device performance.
  • Administration: permits, registration of accessibility lifts, and record retention, where the authority having jurisdiction still sets the rules.

Worked example

A stairway chairlift in a private home stops mid-run and the owner asks whether the installation is legal. The technician evaluates the device against A18.1 - runway clearances, obstruction sensing, operating-device requirements - and then confirms the local permit and inspection record. Citing A17.1 for a chairlift is the error: a residential address does not move the device into the elevator code.

Traps that cost marks

  • Assuming "residential" means private residence elevator code when the device is actually a chairlift or platform lift under A18.1.
  • Believing a CAT authorizes commercial elevator maintenance or inspection.
  • Treating ADA compliance as proof of code compliance, or the reverse.