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.
These 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, advisory notes and figures explain or illustrate the requirements of the standards; they do not establish enforceable requirements.
The standards for determining the appropriate or minimum numbers contained in this document are considered minimal and the Executive Director shall have the authority to make adjustments when it is determined that the standards would cause the numbers or locations to be insufficient to adequately meet the needs of people with disabilities based on the nature, use, and other circumstances of any particular building or facility. In determining the appropriate number and location of a particular element, space, or fixture, the following factors shall be among those considered:
(i) population to be served
(ii) availability to the user;
(iii) location relative to distance and time;
(iv) location relative to isolation and separation;
(v) function of the building or facility; and
(vi) equal treatment and opportunity
EXCEPTION: Commercial Facilities and Public Accommodations Located in Private Residences. When a commercial facility or public accommodation is located in a private residence, the portion of the residence used exclusively as a residence is not covered by these standards. Those portions used in the operation of the commercial facility or public accommodation or that portion used both for the commercial facility or public accommodation and for residential purposes is covered by the new construction and alterations requirements of these standards.
The portion of the residence used in the operation of the commercial facility or public accommodation extends to those elements used to enter the commercial facility or public accommodation, including the homeowner´s front sidewalk, if any, the door or entryway, and hallways; and those portions of the residence, interior or exterior, available to or used by employees or visitors of the commercial facility or public accommodation, including restrooms.
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))
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