ADA - Americans With Disabilities Act
A Summary of Titles I, II and III

Continued...

CONCLUSION

Removal of architectural barriers in existing public buildings, commercial facilities, and public accommodations; and all new commercial construction must follow these guidelines. The ADAAG covers everything from space and reach ranges, accessible route dimensions, slope requirements, protruding objects, parking spaces, ramps, elevators, doors, toilet stalls and rooms, detectable warnings, telephones, assembly areas, special restaurant and lodging requirements, and transportation.

New construction and alterations to commercial buildings and government facilities must follow these guidelines, existing buildings must modify their buildings if it is reasonable to do so.

The basic hardware requirements are as follows:

  1. The doorway must have a minimum clear opening of 32" with the door open 90 degrees, measured from the face of the door and the opposite stop; 5/8" is allowed for the latch.

  2. Thresholds at doorways shall not exceed 1/2" except for exterior sliding doors which is 3/4". Raised thresholds and floor level changes at accessible doorways shall be beveled with a slope no greater than 1:2.

  3. Door hardware such as handles, pulls, latches, locks, and other operating devices on accessible doors shall have a shape that is easy to grasp with one hand and does not require tight grasping, tight pinching, or twisting of the wrist to operate. Lever-operated mechanisms, push-type mechanisms, and U-shaped mechanisms are acceptable designs. Hardware required for accessible door passage shall be mounted no higher than 48" above the finished floor.

  4. If a door has a door closer, then the sweep period of the closer shall be adjusted so that from an open position of 70 degrees, the door will take at least 3 seconds to move to a point 3" from the latch, measured to the leading edge of the door.

  5. The maximum door opening force, as measured directly above the lock, for pushing or pulling open a door shall be as follows: Fire doors shall have the minimum opening force allowable by the appropriate administrative authority. In the ADA there is no requirement for exterior doors due to environmental factors such as wind and pressure differences. In Oregon, Washington and many other states (through their new building codes, which have now adopted the ADA) the exterior doors must have a maximum opening force of 8-1/2 lbs.. When this is not feasible due to environmental conditions an automatic or power-assisted door must be provided. Interior and sliding or folding doors must have a maximum force of 5 lbs. These forces do not apply to the force required to retract latch bolts or disengage other devices that may hold the door in a closed position.

  6. Automatic and power-assisted doors shall not open to backcheck faster than 3 seconds and shall require no more than 15 lbs. of force to stop door movement.

  7. The diameter or width of the gripping surface of a handrail or grab bar shall be 1-1/4" to 1-1/2" or the shape shall provide an equivalent gripping surface. If handrails or grab bars are mounted adjacent to a wall, the space between the wall and the grab bar shall be 1-1/2".
That in a nutshell is the ADA, three of the four Titles, the tax incentives and the basic requirements for doors and hardware.




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