The Path To Accessibility
ADA July 1, 2008
I’m Dan Hounsell, editor of Maintenance Solutions magazine. Today’s topic is, The Path to Accessibility
Despite the many years organizations have had to remove barriers to accessibility from their facilities, many obstacles remain. Occupants and visitors often confront a host of challenges created by some very common facility components.
Visitors with disabilities often must travel long distances before getting to their destinations in facilities, and those paths must be free of barriers.
This interior path of travel in a building can include corridors, lobbies, elevators, wheelchair lifts, store doorways, and offices. Once inside an establishment, accessibility issues are related to aisle widths, heights of products, sales and checkout counters, and other amenities associated with the transactions that take place.
Managers must consider these issues to improve accessibility:
• Lobby floors should be smooth and slip-resistant. Be cautious of floor-waxing products that become slippery when wet. This is a trip-and-fall hazard and a personal injury waiting to happen.
• When using carpet runners at doors and lobbies, make sure the edges are secured to the floor and do not curl or bunch.
• Make sure printed directories are readable, use large print and are not obscured behind a reflective surface. An alternative is to use security staff to provide assistance and directions to visitors.
• On any path of travel, make sure items such as hanging artwork or fire-extinguisher boxes are not mounted between 27 inches and 80 inches from the floor and don’t protrude more than 4 inches from a wall or 12 inches from a post. A visitor with a visual disability would get no warning with a cane before walking into these protruding objects. Options include moving them to another location — or more than 80 inches from the floor — or placing something underneath them to provide a warning to individuals with visual disabilities.
• Make sure boxes, file cabinets and similar items do not block a clear path of travel — one that is at least 36 inches wide — of any hallway or corridor.
Managers can address all of these items through relatively easy and low-cost repairs or upgrades. But they do require a regular system of upkeep and maintenance.
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