ADA Compliance

We're not the ADA Police. We have no association with ada.gov other than we advise our customers to follow the guidelines that they set forth, and thus be within ADA Compliance. Most municipalities get their ADA Specifications and Information from ada.gov.

In our experience, when relining a parking lot, grandfather exemptions don't apply and cities expect you to bring your location up to the current specs. However, we, as your striping company, will follow your directions.

I regularly see properties that are re striped to the old, original spec, probably because the Striper didn't know, or didn't care. Some outfits will just lay down paint, get paid, and get gone. When possible, we recommend bringing the location up to current spec. It usually doesn't cost that much and is safer for everyone. If you need help with this, ask us, we're happy to help! Or you can research the requirements at ada.gov (see the link on this page), or contact your local building inspector and ask. Local Building inspectors know this stuff for their area and can be very helpful.

Here is a scenario that is common. You will see a five foot access aisle and a regular car handicap parking spot in a small parking lot (under 25 spaces). Under 25 spaces requires one handicap parking spot. If your requirement, under 25 parking spaces, is one handicap spot, that spot must be van accessible. To be van accessible, you need either a five foot access aisle and an eleven foot handicap parking space, or an eight foot access aisle and an eight foot handicap space. So sixteen feet, total, either way. Please see the ADA.gov video above.

We can usually take a spot next to your old handicap spot and cross hatch that one; creating a compliant van accessible space. If the old lines are badly worn and a new layout can be done, then we create the spaces with the new lines to meet the rule. In another example, your parking lot has twenty six to fifty spaces, you'll need two handicap spaces; one van accessible, and the other can be a regular car space. These can share an access aisle in the middle. For more on this, go to the source at the ADA.gov Website, see link below.

Please click the link below to view the ada.gov site for more information, or watch the video above:

www.ada.gov/topics/parking/

As far as I know, there are no ADA Police going around writing tickets. According to property owners that we've spoken with, if you apply for a building permit, or in some cases, a new business license, you'll be required to update your parking lot for current ADA compliance.

In recent years, there have been lawsuits from private attorneys over businesses lack of compliance with ADA Accessibility Specifications. The cases that I remember involved access to swimming pools which were initiated after online surveys of businesses using Google Satellite Imaging. These can be found by searching Google and YouTube.