The ADA
requires an accessible pathway from the onsite accessible parking to the main
entry door. The pathway may slope in
the direction of travel, however, it must never slope more than 8.33% and the ADA has certain
requirements regarding handrails, curbs, etc for ramps. In addition, the cross-slope (in a direction
opposite of the direction of travel) must not exceed 2%. These are just some of the requirements as
there are also requirements for size and location of the accessible pathway to
name just a few.
The photograph above shows a pathway violation at a
facility that I recently visited. The
accessible pathway marked by the faded blue cross hatched area overlaps the
sloped area of a drain. Anyone can see
the overlap is clearly sloped over 2% which is almost flat. No measurements are necessary to determine
the excessive cross slope and therefore this pathway could be the subject of a
lawsuit by a serial plaintiff. In
addition, it’s not appropriate to have a disabled person navigate around a
drain that may be full of water during a rain storm.
Although not shown in the photograph, another violation of
the pathway is that it requires a disabled person in a wheelchair to wheel
behind a car that is not their own.
This is dangerous because someone backing out of a parking space may not
see a disabled person in a wheelchair behind them.
No comments:
Post a Comment