Where does your building stand when it comes to compliance with ADA requirements? You might feel confident that people with disabilities can navigate your facility with no trouble, but the reality is that total compliance with the ADA is usually the exception to the rule. What’s at stake here? You’re likely missing business opportunities, not to mention you and your business may be in legal jeopardy.
Make it a point to ensure you’re not setting yourself up for a lawsuit by taking a proactive approach to ADA compliance. These five areas account for the most common deficiencies:
1) Entrances and routes
A disabled person’s experience with your business starts before they even enter your facility. Can someone using a wheelchair or scooter gain access into your building? If your entrances are only accessible by stairs, you have some work on your hands. You’ll need to do some design and get an architect or civil engineer to implement a ramp system, platform lift or elevator.
What about historic buildings? This is commonly misunderstood as it relates to ADA compliance. The standards still apply even if your building was built before the ADA was established. Building owners are required to keep up with changing standards, therefore ignorance as an argument will not hold up in court.
2) Parking areas
In regards to ADA compliance, there’s more to parking stalls than just painting the International Symbol of Access on the ground. Having access aisles where wheelchair users can enter and exit vehicles is a mandate, too.
How widespread of a problem is inaccessability? Take a look at the chain stores you have in your area and see whether or not there’s clearly an access route leading from their parking spots to the front door. More often than not, the answer is no.
3) Restrooms
There are a lot of nuances to consider, but restroom-related violations often fall into one of these categories:
The placement and location of soap dispensers, grab bars and other toilet accessories – not to mention the toilet itself – are common sources of violations. Also, most sinks are not compliant —they’re required to be a maximum of 34 inches high. Too high can cause problems for wheelchair-bound individuals.
The size of the restroom itself can prove to be problematic as well. Restrooms need at least 60 inches of uninterrupted space for wheelchair users to maneuver around.
4) Accidental barriers
Some barriers stem from deferred maintenance vs. the design of the actual building. For example, door pressure and speed both enter the equation as prescribed by the ADA. Doors must be easy enough to maneuver and able to open and close slowly enough. This requires ongoing maintenance, especially in high-traffic buildings.
5) Misunderstanding the law
Building owners frequently conflate ADA mandates with building code. The latter is only required if you’re substantially altering a space or building a new structure. However, ADA compliance is mandatory even if your building was constructed before the requirements became law. There’s no grandfather clause at play here.
Thinking ahead
As with most things in life, it’s more cost-effective to plan ahead and stay on top of ADA compliance than face a lawsuit (or several) later down the road. (Not to mention, it’s simply the right thing to do.) If you have an older building, you should set aside funds every year to remove barriers so that your facility becomes accessible.
The law is nearly 30 years old now – so compliance is not a new concept. If you have a complaint and an attorney asks what you’ve done over the last three decades to make your facility more accessible, your answer should not be ‘Nothing.’ That just puts you on the defense. Yikes!
However, you can take an offensive approach by leaning on a property management firm like ours. You don’t have to go on a wild goose chase to find an exceptional property manager when you can find one right in your backyard. You just have to know where to look! A professional property management company with years of experience and satisfied clients can save you an enormous amount of time and energy. Instead of having to deal with the tedious or nitty-gritty tasks of property management, you’re free to focus on the most important aspects of your job. And who wouldn’t want that?
Our property management company is well equipped to manage your tenant load and your properties from start to finish! These services include property maintenance and compliance, vacancy marketing and tenant placement, rent collection and accounting, on-call property managers, web-based portals for property owners and tenants, and other services that can make your life easier. That peace of mind is priceless.
In other words, we specialize in full-service property solutions. We have three goals for our clients: maximize profitability, keep operating expenses low without sacrificing tenant satisfaction and build value by protecting your investment. Contact our office today to find out more!
