Imagine having to use a walker to go to appointments, dining, or shopping in a strip mall. You find the handicap spaces and park. You get out of your car, unload your walker, and realize that the entry doors are all the way across the parking lot. With great effort you struggle to the get to the sidewalk. Sweating and exhausted, you find that a curb prevents you from stepping up onto the sidewalk. You inch along the sidewalk until you find a curb ramp and begin your challenging journey back to the door you need to enter but you trip on a lip where the concrete has slight heaved at the joints. Most people would not find this to be an impediment, but you trip and fall over the slight rise. Insurance companies define a trip hazard as a lip rising ¼ inch or more. I was walking with my 90-year-old aunt as she inched along with her walker and saw her stumble on a rise half this high.
What able bodied people are unaware of can be a danger to those with disabilities that can cause life threatening accidents. The route from parking to the entry of facilities must be reasonably level, firm, and barrier free. There must be a route that does not involve stairs, steep climbs, or hazards to progress.
Once an individual with a physical disability makes it to the door, they need to enter to access goods and services easily available to able-bodied people they may find the door itself to be a barrier. If there is insufficient room on the opening side of the door to open without hitting their wheelchair or walker, or enough room to open without hitting them, they may be prohibited from entering. At least 18 inches of space beside the opening side of the door must be present to allow passage.
If there is sufficient room to open and enter the door but it requires too much force to open, they are still blocked from entry. Outside entry doors must allow opening with 8 ½ – 10 pounds of force. Interior doors must require 5 pounds or less to open. Once open doors must be at least 32 inches to allow wheelchair and walker entry. The must close from 90 degrees to 12 degrees no faster than 5 seconds.
If the main entry is not accessible, there must be signs that direct a person to an alternative entry that is accessible. The alternative entry must be accessible without assistance during all business hours. The path to the alternative entry must meet all requirements as the main entry, if accessible.
A level surface on both sides of the entry door must be present. Double doors must have ample room between them to allow access in the largest wheelchair. Thresholds must be no more ¼ inch high or beveled if up to ¾ inches high. Door mats and carpeting must be securely anchored at the edges and be no more than ½ inch deep.
Multiple story buildings must provide at least one accessible route to each story and mezzanine where goods and/or services are provided. Businesses in multiple story building with historical designation are exempt.
If the entry and access to your business’s goods and/or services doesn’t allow entry by the most disabled person, access is denied, and you are in violation of the constitutional civil rights of the person and subject to fines and lawsuits. Equal access is required by law for all individuals regardless of personal limitations.