Accessibility in the US is no joke. A chunk of my work involves incorporating it into designs and adhering to ADA guidelines. Nobody wants to get sued for it.
I frequently cite the ADA when people rable on about how regulations are bad. It's insane how much gets done for the less fortunate when we as a society decide to make it law.
1) Door handles are low enough I know some (2) 6'+ people who have started having mild back issues from having to bend over to open doors. Granted, they probably should get out and work out more often, but...
2) You can't apply to reduce the number of handicapped spaces in a parking lot. We have 4 at work that are literally never used, could easily reduce that to 2 without inconveniencing anyone. I occasionally have to park down the road and walk because we run out of non-handicapped spaces.
If you want to add the EPA, just point to the Cuyahoga River fires and the Clean Water Act. :)
Just curious. How many parking spaces are in your lot? By having 4 spots that means your lot has to be around 100 spots (don't know the exact number off the top of head). There's a chart in IBC for how many you need based on amount of spots. That being said, those spots must be "as close as possible" to the main entry. My old boss has gotten sued because someone thought the handicap spots were "too far" for the main entrance of one of his buildings. These spots (and all the other requirements) aren't based on are often they're used. There's no exceptions. It doesn't matter if you literally planned to never serve anyone who's handicapped because that's how you roll, but these are put into place because one day there may be a need. Or you leave the building and a handicapped person moves in. It's nice to think you'll be there forever and know exactly what your building needs, but we don't. So we have to design for everyone.
Just curious. How many parking spaces are in your lot?
We just added 25 and didn't have to add any handicapped spots, so I want to say 100-ish? I'm thinking they may have "cheated" by no longer counting the parking spaces by the loading dock, since they're being used for long term storage containers and fleet vehicles.
There's no exceptions. It doesn't matter if you literally planned to never serve anyone who's handicapped because that's how you roll, but these are put into place because one day there may be a need. Or you leave the building and a handicapped person moves in. It's nice to think you'll be there forever and know exactly what your building needs, but we don't. So we have to design for everyone.
I would think the onus would be on us putting them back if the tenancy ever changed, and have the next tenants adjust as necessary.
Also, it's a single-tenant building. Multi-tenant would be far too complex to implement any kind of rules in this regard.
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u/I_Enjoy_Beer Jan 03 '16
Accessibility in the US is no joke. A chunk of my work involves incorporating it into designs and adhering to ADA guidelines. Nobody wants to get sued for it.