ADA Compliance – Refreshing Your Property Is Crucial

ADA compliance is a critical part of managing and maintaining accessibility for any commercial property, city or municipality. Ensuring that all citizens have access to streets, sidewalks, and facilities should be a priority for property managers, cities and towns. Ensuring your commercial property is ADA Compliant may seem like a lot to take on, but will pay off in the long run in terms of avoiding any legal costs that could occur. Experts recommend that a facility should evaluate a property for accessibility compliance and create a correction plan every five years. Setting a reminder each spring as we start to enjoy the longer daylight hours and the winter thaw is complete ensures you will keep up with any small repairs or modifications that need made.

Parking

New and updated construction mandates that there is accessible parking wherever public parking is provided. These spaces allow for access aisles where a person with a wheelchair would be able to enter and exit a vehicle. Proper signage must be posted at these spots high enough to be seen from a parked vehicle. Specifics for signage height can vary, so be sure your signage is compliant.

A percentage of public parking spaces must also be van-accessible. The ratio of van-accessible spaces can vary depending on your state, county or other local mandate. If there is only one space, then that space must be van-accessible. Van-accessible spaces are wider and have higher vertical clearance, as well as additional signage designating them as van-accessible.

Ramps

The central goal of the ADA is to ensure that people with disabilities can access civic life, programs, and services. A key part of ensuring that is ramp accessibility. Whether it’s on a street curb or to a building entrance, ramps make sure those with disabilities can access sidewalks and businesses. It is required for all new or altered roads and sidewalks to include accessible ramps at pedestrian walkways, such as at crosswalks.

For continued accessibility, it is important to maintain ramps at entrances and curbs to ensure they remain in good condition. Cracks, missing concrete, loose gravel and other signs of disrepair can cause obstacles for access. Make sure to regularly review your ramps and repair any cracks or other damage before it becomes more severe.

Accessible Routes

Accessible routes are unobstructed pedestrian paths that connect accessible spaces, entrances, parking lots and other public areas. These are mandatory in spaces where walkways and paths are necessary to gain access to a building, program, activity, or service. The facilities should have ADA Compliant entrances, whether that is the main entrance or an adjacent.

Accessible routes should allow a disabled person to move from accessible parking spaces to these entrances uninhibited. Accessible routes must be continuous (a direct path from point A to point B that does not break), level, and clearly marked. If you are unsure if your accessible routes are compliant, contact a local ADA expert for an assessment.

At Team Cam, we make it a priority to stay up to date on ADA guidelines for asphalt and concrete public infrastructure. If your commercial facility requires improvements, repairs, or new construction to remain or become ADA compliant, call us today at 443-304-2237 for a free estimate.