It’s the Curb Ramp Law—and Other ADA Myths
Since President George H.W. Bush signed The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) on July 26, 1990, many opinions, attitudes and assumptions have created an extensive mythology about the ADA. Many anecdotal platitudes about the ADA arise from this widespread mythology. Those perceptions are often uninformed and result from misinterpretations of the civil rights law, having no basis in the letter of the law, its regulations or the minimum design and construction standards used to establish compliance of built facilities.
The most visible artifacts of the ADA are probably pedestrian curb ramps. It is not difficult to see why many presume the law primarily removes barriers for people who use wheelchairs. Meanwhile, the provisions in the law requiring effective communication with people of all abilities through auxiliary aids and services such as Braille documents, sign language interpreters and closed captions on video do as much to provide access on a daily basis as curb ramps.
Nevertheless, construction executives and professionals from architects and engineers to carpenters and concrete finishers all have a role to play in fulfilling the intent of the ADA. Even small structural barriers on public sidewalks, in buildings and in parks can prevent people with mobility limitations from participating in the everyday activities taken for granted by those of us who have not yet experienced those limitations.
A 2018 study reports nearly one in five (18.1%) middle-aged adults (ages 45 to 64) and more than one in four (26.9%) older adults (65 or younger) have a mobility disability. The study identifies about 61 million Americans—one in four adults—who have a disability that substantially limits a major life activity. People with disabilities are the largest minority group in the country and anyone can join that group any day. Inevitably, those who live long enough will acquire one or more conditions that significantly limit their abilities.
The Impact of the Built Environment on People with Disabilities
The degree and dimensions of barriers that can limit access for many are often minimal. Excessive forces required to open doors; vertical thresholds higher than a quarter inch; steep walking surfaces/ramps; high counters, dining or work surfaces; narrow toilet compartments; the absence of grab bars, handrails and tactile/Braille signs; and protruding objects—to list a few common barriers—can seem benign to those who have no disabilities.
Historically, people with disabilities have had limited access to many public spaces. Besides societal attitudes that have often kept people with the most severe disabilities—including those who had developmental and psychiatric disabilities—sequestered in attics and institutions, people with limited mobility could not enter many buildings because of vertical barriers (e.g., stairs) or horizontal barriers (e.g., narrow doorways). For the most part, in retrospect, these barriers were not intentionally discriminatory or malicious, but, effectively, they prevented people with disabilities from having equal access to many opportunities. People with disabilities were excluded from education, employment and public activities, such as voting and jury duty. Many were confined to institutions and restricted from the liberties promised to all Americans in the Constitution.
Today, being a more enlightened society and recognizing the many contributions that people with disabilities can make, we have the ADA and its technical provisions, such as the 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design (ADA Standards) and the Proposed Guidelines for Pedestrian Facilities in the Public Right-of-Way, to define minimal parameters to make facilities accessible to people of all abilities.
These accessible design provisions are based on human anthropometrics and dimensional characteristics of mobility devices and aids, such as wheelchairs and white canes. Some requirements, including visible alarms and assistive listening systems, make facilities safer for and accessible to people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing. The location of tactile/Braille signage at a specified height, adjacent to the latch side of the doors to permanently identified spaces, makes it possible for people who are blind or have low vision to find those rooms. And although the ADA is not a building code, most, if not all, provisions in current building codes require physical access features consistent with or exceeding the ADA Standards.
Understanding Accessible Design
The basic designs that ensure access for people of all abilities, called building blocks, are found in Chapter 3 of the 2010 ADA Standards. While there are many other specific scoping (e.g., how many accessible parking spaces, accessible entrances, and mobility and communication accessible hotel rooms) and technical provisions in the standards, the building blocks inform designers and builders regarding the basic dimensional attributes of accessible spaces.
The ADA Standards replaced the original ADA Accessibility Guidelines, effective March 15, 2012. These standards have not and will not change frequently. As noted above, current building code (based on ANSI standards) generally meet or exceed ADA Standards. Building codes evolve much more quickly than regulatory standards. New construction, following building codes and the ADA Standards must be accessible to and usable by people of all abilities.
In alterations to existing facilities (i.e., those existing prior to March 15, 2012), building codes may or may not require making those facilities ADA compliant. And while the ADA does extend safe harbor (see §35.150(b)(2) and §36.304(d)(2)) for new construction and alterations, completed prior to March 15, 2012, elements that complied with previous standards, new construction or alterations to existing elements after that date must comply with the current ADA Standards (or building code, where building code requires more accessibility than the ADA). The ADA regulations make exceptions for structural impracticability in new construction (see §35.151(a)(2) and §36.401(c)) and technical infeasibility in alterations (see §35.151(b) and §36.402(c)).
An Opportunity for Construction Professionals
Making the world accessible for people of all abilities requires, at a minimum, new construction and renovations that, to the maximum extent feasible, comply with the ADA Standards. Doing so provides a real value for facility owners and establishes the integrity and diligence of designers and contractors who make the extra effort to protect their customers from ADA litigation. By being inclusive, businesses can serve larger markets. Accessible workplaces have larger labor pools. Show your clients that accessible buildings are inclusive of people of all abilities.
