2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design Pocket Guide
201.1 Scope.
All areas of newly designed and newly constructed buildings and facilities and altered portions of existing buildings and facilities shall comply with these requirements.
35.151(d) New Construction and Alterations; Scope of Coverage
36.406(b) Standards for New Construction and Alterations; Scope of Coverage.
The 1991 Standards and the 2010 Standards apply to fixed or built-in elements of buildings, structures, site improvements, and pedestrian routes or vehicular ways located on a site. Unless specifically stated otherwise, the advisory notes, appendix notes, and figures contained in the 1991 Standards and 2010 Standards explain or illustrate the requirements of the rule; they do not establish enforceable requirements.
ETA Editor’s Note:
Although the ADA Standards apply to "fixed or built-in elements", the requirements of the Standards are also used to inform the analysis of the accessibility of movable elements that are covered by the regulations.
For example, the requirements of the Title III regulations at 36.302(a) obligate public accommodations to "make reasonable modifications in policies, practices, or procedures, when the modifications are necessary to afford goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations to individuals with disabilities, unless the public accommodation can demonstrate that making the modifications would fundamentally alter the nature of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations." Modifying a practice of buying tables with insufficient knee clearances when compared to the Standard for fixed tables would likely be considered reasonable.
Similarly, section 36.304 requires the removal of barriers where such removal is readily achievable. 36.304(b)(4) gives the example of "Rearranging tables, chairs, vending machines, display racks, and other furniture". Rearranging them to provide sufficient clear widths to allow wheelchair maneuvering is one method of barrier removal and the required clear width to become accessible can be determined by reading the Standards. (See also 36.304(d)(1))
Advisory 201.1 Scope. These requirements are to be applied to all areas of a facility unless exempted, or where scoping limits the number of multiple elements required to be accessible. For example, not all medical care patient rooms are required to be accessible; those that are not required to be accessible are not required to comply with these requirements. However, common use and public use spaces such as recovery rooms, examination rooms, and cafeterias are not exempt from these requirements and must be accessible.
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