ADA Guidelines

In September 2010, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) issued important amendments to its regulations that implement Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) (applicable to state and local government entities) and Title III of the ADA (applicable to public accommodations, such as hotels, museums, restaurants, stores, and similar privately-owned businesses that are open to the public.

• Title I: Employment
• Title II: Public Entities (and public transportation)
• Title III: Public Accommodations (and commercial facilities)
• Title IV: Telecommunications
• Title V: Miscellaneous Provisions

The ADA itself is the newest Federal disability law. It’s basically – the ADA is a short title of a United States public law. It was signed by President George H.W. Bush. It was signed back in 1990, the summer of 1990. It is a civil rights law because it is protecting against discrimination. A lot of people don’t realize that all of the disability laws and accessibility laws are basically civil rights law because it is equaling out the playing field of making equal opportunities for folks to be able to work, to be able to access things. It is about keeping discrimination away from those folks who might have a disability. This disability law is very similar to the civil rights act where it affords the same type of protection from that Civil Rights Act of 1964. Basically that was protecting folks from discrimination based on race, religion, sex, national origin and as well disability.
So, this is the newest of a very long line of disability laws and in fact, if you’re at all interested, there’s everything from transportation disability laws to health communication laws. There’s a lot of different types of laws out there to protect those with disabilities. Specifically, the ADA has five titles that you see on the screen here. Title I is about employment. That is just discrimination against employment for folks with disabilities. Title II which we will talk about today is about access to programs and activities offered by State and local governments. Title II we’re very much concerned about is also about public transportation and access as well. But Title II is important but Title III is very important because this one is about accessing goods and also services so whereas one is about program and activity accessibility for Title II and that’s at State and local government level.
The other Title III is about public things. So, that is if you think about what you see and where you go everyday almost everything that you do in places that you go are going to be covered under Title III because we are talking about stores. We’re talking about football stadiums, doctor’s offices, beauty parlors, hotels. If you went to lunch in a restaurant, we’re talking about restaurants. These are all public accommodations and commercial facilities so you see that almost everything is going to fall under either Title II for those governmental pieces or Title III for the public accessibility. Title IV and Title V, Title IV is telecommunications and Title V has a whole bunch of miscellaneous things within it so we won’t talk about Title I, Title IV and Title V today.
Specifically, we are concerned with the construction and alteration of facilities under Title II and Title III.

The Americans with Disabilities Act/Architectural Barriers Act Accessibility Guidelines (2010 Guidelines) developed by the U.S. Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board (the Access Board) effectively replaces the 1991 ADA Accessibility Guidelines (ADAAG) and the Uniform Federal Accessibility Standards (UFAS)

The Department of Justice’s revised regulations for Titles II and III of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) were published in the Federal Register on September 15, 2010 as the 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design.

The purpose of the 2010 Guidelines is to minimize compliance burdens on entities that were previously subject to different accessibility standards by harmonizing the ADA’s accessibility standards with those that implement the Architectural Barriers Act and with model codes that had been adopted by many states. The 2010 Guidelines also include important new or revised accessibility standards for certain types of facilities, including:

• Swimming pools
• Prisons
• Judicial Facilities
• Amusement Parks
• Public Housing

• 1961: American National Standard Institute (ANSI)
• 1988: Uniform Federal Accessibility Standards (UFAS)
• 1990: Americans with Disabilities Act
• 1991: Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines (ADAAG)
• 1994: TAS – Equivalent to ADAAG
• 2004: ADAAG by the Access Board
• 2008: ADA Amendments Act
• 2010: ADA Standards for Accessible Design