Americans with Disabilities Act
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Introduction to the ADA > Employment > Government / Public Transportation > Public Accommodation
Public Accommodations > Take the Test > Definitions > Title III Requirements > Existing Barriers / New Construction
Existing Barriers / New Construction
Are Existing Facilities Required to Remove Barriers?
Physical barriers to entering and using facilities must be removed if readily achievable. Examples of barrier removal are the installation of ramps, installing curb cuts, rearranging tables, display racks and other furniture, widening doorways, installing grab bars in toilet stalls and adding raised letters or Braille on elevator buttons and automatic teller machines (ATM's).
The first priority that a public accommodation must have is to enable people with disabilities to get in the front door. Secondly, measures must be taken to provide access to goods and services.
Readily achievable means easily accomplished and able to be provided without difficulty or expense. For example, a restaurant may move a table from in from of an entrance to another place in the dining room to accommodate the turn radius of wheelchairs.
What is readily achievable is determined on a case by case basis in light of the resources available. Title III does not require the movement of temporary or moveable structures such as display racks to the extent that such movement would result in the loss of selling space.
Public accommodations may consider legitimate safety requirements in determining what is readily achievable as long as actual risk and safety of operation is the primary consideration.
Barrier removal measures must comply when readily achievable with the alterations requirements of the ADA Accessibility Guidelines. If compliance with these Guidelines is not readily achievable, other safe and achievable measures must be taken such as the installation of a slightly narrower door than is required by the Guidelines.
In Existing Facilities, What are the Alternatives to Barrier Removal?
The ADA requires the removable of barriers, such as stairs, if removal is a readily achievable option. If the barrier removal is not readily achievable, alternative steps must be taken by the public accommodation to make goods and services accessible. Examples of alternative methods include providing goods and services at the door, sidewalk or curb, providing home delivery, rearranging goods from inaccessible to accessible space, and finding alternative accessible locations.
Public accommodations may not impose extra charges on people with disabilities to cover the costs of providing alternatives to barrier removal. For example, a restaurant cannot charge a person with a disability an extra fee for home delivery, if home delivery is the restaurant's alternative to barrier removal.
What are the Requirements for New Construction?
All newly constructed places of public accommodation and commercial facilities must be accessible to people with disabilities to the extent that it is not structurally impractical.
The new construction requirements apply to any facility occupied after January 26, 1993, for which the last application for a building permit or permit extension is certified as complete after January 26, 1992.
Structurally impractical is only considered in rare instances where the unique features of the terrain prevent the use of accessibility features. For example, a facility built on stilts on marshland cannot be made accessible.
The architectural standards for accessibility in new construction can be found in the ADA Accessibility Guidelines issued by the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Board.
Elevators are not required in facilities under three stories with fewer than 3,000 square feet per floor, unless the building is a shopping center, shopping mall, professional office of a health care provider or station used for public transportation.
What About Alterations?
Alterations made after January 26, 1992 in existing places of public accommodation and commercial facilities must be accessible to the maximum extent possible. Here again, the architectural standards for accessibility in alterations are contained in the ADA Guidelines.
An alteration is a change that affects the use of a facility. For example, if during the course of the remodeling of a shop, a doorway is added, the doorway must meet ADA Accessibility Guidelines.
When alterations are made in the primary function area, such as the lobby or work space of a bank, an accessible path of travel to the altered areas, and the bathrooms, telephones and drinking fountains serving that area, must be made accessible to the extent that the accessibility costs are not disproportionate to the overall costs of the original alteration. If the added costs exceed 20 percent of the original alteration, they are considered disproportionate.
Alteration to windows, hardware, controls, electrical outlets and signs in primary function areas do not trigger the need for an accessible path of travel.
Elevators are not required in facilities under three stories with fewer than 3,000 square feet per floor, unless the building is a shopping center, shopping mall, professional office of a health care provider or station used for public transportation.
What Are The ADA Accessibility Guidelines for New Construction and Alterations?
Guidelines contain general design and technical standards for buildings and other space such as parking, routes, ramps, stairs, elevators, doors, entrances, drinking fountains, bathrooms, controls and operating mechanisms, storage areas, alarms, signage, telephones, fixed seating and tables, assembly areas, automated teller machines (ATMs), and dressing rooms. The Guidelines also have specific standards for restaurants, medical facilities, mercantile facilities, libraries, hotels, hotels and shelters.
The Guidelines also contain "scoping requirements" which might be useful to advocates as they go out into the community and check on the progress of accessibility in public accommodations. This list is included here to point out what you should be looking for when checking public accommodations for accessibility.
The following are scoping requirements for new construction.
- At least 50 percent of all public entrances must be accessible. In addition, there must be accessible entrances to enclosed parking lots, pedestrian tunnels and elevated walkways.
- An accessible route must connect public transportation stops, parking spaces, passenger loading zones and public street or sidewalks to all accessible features within a building.
- Each public and common use bathroom must be accessible. Only one stall must be accessible, unless there are six or more stalls, in which case, two stalls must be accessible (one of which must be of an alternate, narrow style design.)
- Each floor in a building without a supervised sprinkler system must contain an area of rescue assistance (an area with direct access to a stairway where people who cannot use stairs can wait for assistance during an emergency evacuation.
- One TDD must be provided inside any building that has four or more public pay phones, counting both phones inside and outside of the building. In addition, one TDD must be provided whenever there is an inside public pay phone in a stadium or arena, convention center, hotel with a convention center, covered shopping mall, or hospital emergency, recovery or waiting room.
- One accessible phone must be provided for each floor, unless the floor has two or more banks of phones, in which case there must be one accessible phone in each bank.
- Fixed seating assembly areas that seat 50 or more people or have audio-amplification systems, must have a permanently installed assistive listening system.
- Dispersal of wheelchair seating in theaters is required where there are more than 300 seats. In addition, at least one percent of all fixed seats must be aisle seats with armrests or with moveable armrests. Fixed seating for companions must be next to each wheelchair location.
- Where automated teller machines are provided, at least one must be accessible.
- A total of five percent of fitting and dressing rooms (never less than one) must be accessible.
The following are scoping requirements for new construction of special type facilities such as restaurants, medical care facilities, mercantile establishments (shops and stores), libraries and hotels.
- In restaurants, generally all dining areas and five percent of fixed tables (but never less than one) must be accessible.
- In medical care facilities, all public and common areas must be accessible. In general purpose hospitals and in psychiatric and detoxification facilities, ten percent of patient bedrooms and toilets must be accessible. The required percentage is 100 percent for special facilities treating conditions that affect mobility and 50 percent for long term care facilities and nursing homes.
- In shops and stores (mercantile establishments), at least one of each type counter containing a cash register and at least one of each design of check-out aisle must be accessible. In some cases, additional check-out aisles are required to be accessible (from 20 to 40 percent depending upon the total number of check-out aisles and the size of the facility.)
- In libraries, all public areas must be accessible. In addition, five percent of fixed tables or study carrels (at least one) must be accessible. At least one lane at the check out area and aisles between card catalogues, magazines, displays and stacks must be accessible.
- In hotels, four percent of the first 100 rooms and approximately two percent of rooms in excess of 100 must be accessible to persons with hearing impairments and to those with mobility impairments. For those with hearing impairments, the overnight rooms must contain visual alarms, visual notification devices, volume control telephones and an accessible electric outlet for a TDD.
- Technical and scoping requirements are sometimes less stringent for alterations than for new construction.
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