It’s important to remember that not all of the disabled
arrive to a property in an automobile.
Many are not able to drive and therefore must use public
transportation. As a property owner, it’s
your responsibility to get the disabled safely from the public way (sidewalk)
onto the property and into your facility.
Many business owners believe that disabled arriving to the
site from the public way can simply use the same driveway that the automobiles
do. While this may be physically
possible, this is not allowed by the ADA
as it is dangerous for those in wheelchairs to interact with automobiles. After all, you must remember that those in a
wheelchair are sitting down and therefore may not be visible to drivers.
As you can see from the photograph at the right, this
property has access from the sidewalk; however, it prohibits access by someone
in a wheelchair. This route needs to be
modified to allow for access by the disabled.
This means all of the requirements of an accessible route must be
addressed including the width and slope of the access way to name just a few of
the requirements.
It’s also important to note that once on the property, the
accessible route must get the disabled person to the doors of all facilities on
the site. This means that if there are
several buildings on the site, they all need to be connected by an accessible
route that meets all of the requirements such as ramps instead of stairs and maintaining
the proper width.
Remember if a disabled person can not get from the public way (sidewalk)
to the doors or your facility, then you are discriminating against that person
and therefore may be the subject of a lawsuit.
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