Americans with Disabilities Act
(ADA)

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which went into effect January 26, 1992, is implemented to help individuals with disabilities move toward independence in a free from barriers society. This act addresses discrimination by private entities in places of public accommodation, commercial facilities, and certain examinations and courses.

ADA Accessibility Guidelines for Buildings and Facilities (ADAAG)

ADA Ensures Accessibility for All

The concept of universal design is not new, but only now is it getting the attention it deserves. In its simplest form, universal design is an approach to the built environment, communications, products, services and environments so that as many people as possible can benefit from the process, regardless of age, ability or individual situation.

That seems simple and straightforward, right? One might argue that the primary goal of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which celebrated the 17th anniversary of its implementation this year, is simple: Do not discriminate against individuals with disabilities by designing, constructing or altering facilities that have barriers.

But that has not been the case. Architects and designers still produce buildings that do not comply with many basic tenets of ADA. If these parties have difficulties producing facilities constructed in compliance with a federal law, what chance do we have to get them to buy into the concept of universal design?

Well, much like green buildings and sustainable design, ADA and universal design make sense for a number of reasons, not only from the standpoint of meeting federal requirements and staving off lawsuits. The concept makes facilities more user-friendly for more people.

The task in this case for maintenance managers is to help architects and planners incorporate the concept in ways that both benefit visitors and occupants and keep facilities maintainable.

Universal Applications

Although accessibility is intended first and foremost to allow for the equal use and enjoyment of facilities for individuals with disabilities, it provides benefits for everyone. Examples are apparent throughout facilities.

The closed-captioning on televisions originally intended for people with hearing disabilities now appears more widely in health clubs and bars.

Family restrooms — those designed for one user at a time — also are helpful for parents with small children, particularly dads who don’t cherish taking their 6- or 7-year-old daughters into the men’s room. They also benefit wheelchair users who need the assistance of a family member or care attendant, as well as those of us with aging parents who require assistance.

Signs with large print, raised characters and pictograms are helpful for small children, people with failing eyesight, and those for whom English is not their first language.

Finally, everyone’s favorite example is the automatic-sensor power door. These products enable everyone to come in together while leaving hands and arms free to carry a cup of coffee, briefcase or child.

What challenges and opportunities do maintenance managers face in planning to incorporate universal design into a facility? Remember, the ADA is a requirement, so that must always be the baseline. Using the ADA requirements as a baseline, managers can use the opportunity that universal design presents to expand on ways facilities can be more usable to more people.

Several examples are most informative, and some offer managers straightforward and low-cost options.

Parking

The use of placards indicating handicapped parking is on the rise in garages and lots. But senior citizens who have difficulty walking or health problems that are not readily obvious — such as emphysema or heart disease — often use them, as well.

ADA provides a numerical table to help managers determine the required number of reserved accessible van and car spaces. These are minimum standards, so if space is available, managers can include additional spaces.

And if a facility has multiple entrances or levels of parking, consider spreading these spaces out among the entrances or levels, making sure all additional spaces meet the requirements and include access aisles and signs.

Exterior Areas

Sidewalks, parking lots, pathways and other areas of pedestrian travel are critical areas for proper maintenance. This work might take place during the winter months to ensure that walking surfaces are clear and dry and that plowed snow is not deposited into the accessible parking spaces or at the bottom of curb ramps.

But it also is important to make sure that walking surfaces are kept smooth and free of gaps, cracks and other obstacles. These present trip hazards for anyone, particularly those who have trouble seeing or walking. They then become a risk-management problem for the organization.

Entrances

Heavy doors can generate the most complaints from people using buildings. Even though a large number of factors go into designing an exterior entrance, managers have options that can help all occupants and visitors.

Power-assisted door operators have become more cost-effective and cost-efficient. Again, from a universal user standpoint, delivery personnel, sales people and those pulling briefcases and PCs on wheeled cases are the heaviest users of these doors.

For airlock or interior doors, checking door closers regularly can mitigate complaints. Make sure that door operation requires a force of 5 pounds or less.

Restrooms

Manufacturers and sustainable-design proponents have been leading the charge in this area of facilities. Many of the changes and new technology available with restroom amenities and elements also are user friendly for all people, including those with disabilities.

Toilets with automatic-sensor flush eliminate the need for a flush valve, but they also eliminate one of the most common design and construction mistakes under the ADA — that the flush valve must be on the wide side of the stall or room.

Motion-activated light sensors also save energy and prevent questions about where to install the light switch.

Sinks with automatic water also eliminate the worry of having the wrong type of faucet hardware. But managers need to make sure that all other elements of a sink remain accessible.

Motion-activated paper towel dispensers also are useful, but it is unclear how individuals with visual disabilities can fully access them. But again, make sure installers mount these units in a location and at a height at which everyone can use them.

People with a range of disabilities use facilities each day. But managers never really know who they are, what their capabilities or limitations are, or what those might be tomorrow or the next day.

The very best that managers can do as facility professionals is to ensure that buildings provide a safe, usable and enjoyable environment for these individuals to enter everyday as employees, tenants, customers and visitors. By doing that, managers will have embraced universal design.

Inside ADA

Jan. 26, 2009, marks the 17th anniversary of the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Although it has been law since the last century, considerable confusion, disagreement and consternation remains about its requirements and the need to comply.

All of this energy and cost could well have been spent by ensuring that existing facilities remove barriers, that all alterations and renovations are done correctly, and that all new construction projects are done in strict adherence to regulations. Where does that leave the maintenance manager who must respond to the multiple demands of owners, users and regulations, all at the same time?

Managers face a daily barrage of challenges and obstacles to the safe, efficient and user-friendly operation of their property. These challenges come in a variety of shapes and sizes and from a wide variety of both natural and human sources. Many managers can identify with some of the challenges that follow, and they might gain useful insight and guidance from the solutions offered.

Challenge #1
You have a multi-facility campus complex with a parking lot adjacent to each building or entrance. You’ve just completed a resurfacing contract with an asphalt contractor who told you “Don’t worry. I know all about the ADA requirements.” But you’ve discovered that they’ve completed their work and submitted the final invoice for payment. But the final inspection before payment reveals that they have not painted any compliant-reserved accessible parking spaces or access aisles. They also have ruined half of the previously compliant curb cuts.

Creative solution. First, withhold final payment, and double-check the contract. If the contract states that work was to be performed in compliance with applicable local, state or federal requirements, or if you have a warranty agreement with the contractor, exercise your rights under those agreements to force the contractor to correct its errors before making final payment.

The issue of the realigning and painting the spaces and access aisles should be a simple enough correction. But be sure that the proper signage is mounted in front of each of the parking spaces. The universal accessibility symbol painted on the ground is not sufficient.

When the contractor corrects the curb ramps, make sure to meet all of the requirements, including that the slope does not exceed a 1:12 ratio and that the transition from the parking lot and at the sidewalk are both smooth. You can find technical requirements in the Americans with Disabilities Act accessibility guidelines (ADAAG) at the Access Board’s web site.

Use the above-noted example as standard operating procedure — whether it is with architects, contractors or purchasing products that state that they are ADA approved — before signing the contract or purchase order.

Challenge #2
Your buildings get a tremendous amount of foot traffic every day. You have multiple entrances and multiple banks of elevators, and as a mixed-use facility, security staff must be alert to everything from questions from visitors, carpet runners dragged across the lobby, and a complaint from an older gentleman “of a young lady who came into the men’s room with her father.”

Just when things seem to be calming down, the fire alarm goes off, and the elevators shut down just as the annual luncheon of the “golden givers” in the ballroom on the third floor is ending.

Creative solution. Don’t panic. Dispatch both male and female facility and security personnel to the third-floor ballroom and its adjacent men’s and ladies’ rooms. If the restrooms and common areas do not have visual strobe alarms — an ADA requirement — people who cannot hear will not know the fire alarm has been sounded and that they need to evacuate. If the facility has developed an emergency evacuation plan that includes ways to evacuate people who cannot use stairs, put that plan into action. If you have not yet developed a plan, start with these first important steps:

Communicate to tenants about emergency evacuation procedures and routes. Hold evacuation drills, and do not make them voluntary.
Make sure security staff understands emergency procedures and routes.
If the building has guests sign in, add a simple question such as, “In case of an emergency, would you need assistance in getting out of the building?”
Consider buying emergency evacuation equipment if you have tenants who cannot use stairs. Someone with a hidden medical condition, such as a heart condition, or someone who was recently injured or recovering from surgery might need assistance.

As for the other issues in this scenario, make sure that carpet runners are securely attached to the floor. They present a trip hazard and a risk manager’s nightmare.

A good signage program would help the facility. It assists the security staff by providing wayfinding signage to the entrances and it directs the father with the young daughter to the family toilet room down the hall from the men’s room.

Challenge #3
You’re responsible for a medical facility and are preparing for a national accreditation review and a state inspection, bidding out the design work for a new children’s outpatient wing, as well as for renovations to the patient bathrooms in the hospital’s oldest wing.

Creative solution. Prioritize and document. First, the requirements for accreditation or state licensing in medical facilities often conflict with ADA requirements, requiring something that is prohibited under the ADA. This is particularly true for bathrooms in patient rooms.

In those instances, it is critical to get documentation from the accreditation or funding source to demonstrate why those particular elements do not meet the ADA requirements. But if the requirement calls for side-mounted grab bars on the toilet, consider wall-mounted, swing-away grab bars, which serve both purposes.

As for the children’s outpatient wing, the Access Board has developed guidance on children’s environment specifications that provide for lower toilet and lavatory mounting heights and other elements. They can be found at access-board web site

Finally, when renovating tiny patient room bathrooms, consider either removing or moving the lavatory to provide more floor space alongside the toilet. This allows for greater room for assisted transfers — particularly true in hospital settings — for patients who need it during their stay.

Challenge #4
The dean of admissions announces that the university has just been chosen to participate in a program for war-injured veterans to earn their degrees, but the university must assure that the campus is “ADA compliant.” What do you do, and where do you start?

Creative solution. If you did a self-evaluation and transition plan when the ADA was implemented in 1992, and if you have been implementing the plan for the past 17 years, you are in a very good position to be able to report quickly back to the dean about changes that might need to be made to the campus facilities, their costs, and when they would be complete.

Did the self-evaluation and transition plan include the residential-life aspects of campus, social and recreational and the exterior elements of the campus? How do students get between buildings? Where are the accessible walking routes, including curb cuts?

Take whatever information you do have and make sure it is current. An old evaluation of a building is useless, particularly where changes have been made. If no information is available, start reviewing your buildings.

Just as importantly, look at how someone — a student, visitor, alumni, family member, employee or faculty member — can get around the campus. Integrate that information into the campus map, on the web site and on any information available. Most people will find it helpful and useful.

Access for all
Remember one thing: All of these scenarios have one thing in common: Although they initially focused on ADA compliance, the solution actually created a safer and a more cost-effective environment for everyone visiting facilities.

There is a common denominator for all managers: Providing a safe and user-friendly environment for employees, visitors, customers, tenants, students and patients, whether they have disabilities or not, is the right thing to do. It is the smart thing to do, and it’s the law.

For all your ADA Compliance needs in Atlanta, please call us today at 770-995-0072 or complete our online request form. GCM is Atlanta's ADA experts.