Intro

Hello, boys and girls. Welcome to the fourth episode of the ARE Study Guide podcast. Today is going to be all about Universal Design and ADA standards. 

ADA stands for Americans With Disabilities Act. ADA is a 1990 legislation that requires public buildings to be made accessible to people with disabilities. ADA disabilities include not only physical but also mental limitations. ADA is a civil rights legislation. It is not a law. All of the ADA standards are found in the ICC Standard A117.1. This document can be found for free online. [Here’s one link: https://up.codes/viewer/alabama/icc-a117.1-2009/chapter/1/application-and-administration#1 note: Alabama has adopted the ICC A117.1 with no modifications, that’s why I selected this version] 

The goal of the ADA standards (taken from the A117.1) is to “make sites, facilities, buildings and elements accessible to and usable by people with such physical disabilities as the inability to walk, difficulty walking, reliance on walking aids, blindness and visual impairment, deafness and hearing impairment, incoordination, reaching and manipulation disabilities, lack of stamina, difficulty interpreting and reacting to sensory information, and extremes of physical size… to independently get to, enter, and use a site, facility, building, or element.”

Accessible Routes

For the Programming and Analysis test you just need to know about the ADA standards related to accessible routes. An accessible route is defined as a continuous path connecting all accessible spaces in a building. 

Wheelchairs always need a clear width of 36 inches for them to navigate, so the clear width of an accessible route always needs to be 36 inches. For a maximum length of 2’, you are allowed to reduce the width of the accessible route to 32 inches. 

Any walking surface other than a ramp cannot have a slope greater than 1:20. 

Ramps

The minimum clear with for a ramp is 36 inches. 

The maximum height for any ramp segment is 30 inches. That means that any portion of a ramp cannot be taller than 30 inches without having a landing. 

The maximum slope for a ramp is 1:12 

For ramp slopes between 1:12 and 1:16 the ramp cannot go further than 30ft. For slopes between 1:16 and 1:20 the ramp cannot go further than 40ft. 

The cross slope of a ramp surface cannot be greater than 1:50. The cross slope is the slope perpendicular to the direction of travel.

Ramp Landings

At the beginning and end of each ramp segment there needs to be a flat landing of at least 60 inches in length. If the ramp changes directions, the landing must be a minimum of 60 inches by 60 inches. 

Handrails

Ramps that go up more than 6” or run longer than 72” will require handrails. 

Handrails must extend past each ramp segment by twelve inches. The inside hand rail of a ramp must be continuous. 

Handrail shall be mounted so that the top surface of the handle is between 34" and 38” from the finished floor of the ramp surface. 

When ADA Regulations Apply

With ADA, it's important to know when ADA applies and when it does not apply. ADA applies to public buildings and multi-family buildings. 

ADA does not apply to: detached one and two family residences; any utility occupancy; hotel buildings that are owner occupied and have less than five sleeping units; limited portions of religious worship areas (probably for taking Communion or doing music maybe? I don't actually know what the limited portions of religious worship areas are, but I assume there for particular worship practices); it also doesn't apply to single occupant structures; raised security areas; temporary construction facilities; water slide; and limited access equipment spaces for historical properties. 

ADA Modifications to Historical Buildings

It's important to note that ADA includes provisions that prevent the requirement of ADA modifications that would threaten or destroy the historically significant building elements.

Conclusion

And, those are the basic principles of ADA you need to know for the Programming and Analysis test. To learn more, you can check out the ADA standards, which are available for free online. They are very accessible. Go figure. You can also check out my Study Guide, which includes all of the most common ADA guidelines that are relevant to us as architects in an abbreviated form without all of the jargon, just simple bullet points of all the information you need to know to be a wonderful architect making wonderfully accessible spaces for the public. If you want to check that out, visit AREStudyGuidePodcast.com