The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federally mandated policy that ensures that buildings provide equal access and functionality to those with disabilities. For building owners and managers with large portfolios of assets, ADA compliance can be quite challenging, with plenty of legal and regulatory risks. Standalone, first-time ADA violations can total up to $75,000. Repeat violations can total up to $150,000. Multiply this over multiple violations and one can see the costs involved by not adhering to ADA standards.

The Role of ADA Surveys

ADA surveys or checklists are typically employed by building owners and managers to ensure their properties adhere to the latest ADA regulations. While the original ADA policy was enacted in 1990, it continues to evolve along with new building and construction codes. Existing buildings typically need to be updated with new ADA design guidelines, while new buildings usually adhere to local building code regulations that are ADA compliant. The ADA National Network has a good sample ADA survey. It highlights key design requirements for buildings, including parking layouts, hallway widths and elevator size.

ADA Non-Compliance: What are the Costs?

Despite the importance of ADA compliance and conducting ADA surveys, many businesses and organizations fail to see the risks of not meeting standards. According to the US Equal Opportunity Commission, monetary benefits paid to recipients as a result of ADA compliance violations have increased over 140% since 2000 and totaled $131 million in 2016.

ADA building standards go beyond compliance: they can have a significant impact on those with disabilities. To address this, many large organizations are incorporating ADA policies into both risk management practices and larger wellness and health standards.

What are the Top Compliance Issues?

Like building codes, ADA standards can cover a wide range of exterior and interior considerations. Some of the more common ADA violations in the industry include:

• Exterior design, such as lack of parking ramps, no automatic doors or narrow entranceways
• Interior design, such as poor signage, narrow doorways or non-compliant elevators
• Bathrooms, such as inaccessible sink and toilet heights, lack of accessible bathroom stalls or limited support handles
• Infrastructure, such as poorly placed furniture, garbage/recycling areas or waiting areas

Typically, organizations have two main violation areas. The first is a failure to meet ADA standards entirely. The second is a lack of an overall platform to support ADA compliance. This second component is often more important and can lead to poorly deployed ADA surveys, limited organizational knowledge of ADA compliance and poor information management systems around human and physical capital. Disparate excel sheets, inconsistent reporting and poor data collection are a sign of an organization with poor ADA compliance capabilities.

What Are the Next Steps?

Given the risks associated with ADA compliance, real estate managers and owners need to ensure their buildings meet the latest standards and develop a platform to maintain it. This involves human resource and risk management capacity as well as a strong analytics platform for monitoring and driving compliance. The best option is software that helps your organization accurately assess your ADA compliance against the latest requirements and shows clear recommendations for upgrades.

Avoid fines and ensure your organization is completing your ADA surveys accurately with 4tell™’s new ADA assessment software.

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