ABA Accessibility Standard for GSA Facilities Pocket Guide

How to Use This Pocket Guide

The sections included in this pocket guide from the GSA Final Rule are indicated in gray shading and are intended to simplify the reference process for facility design professionals. They do not include all the facility management responsibilities outlined in GSA’s 212-page Final Rule. Included sections are from 41 CFR—Code of Federal Regulations; Chapter 102—Federal Management Regulation; Subchapter C—Real Property; Part 102-71—General; and Part 102-76 Design and Construction. The applicable subparts and sections are identified where referenced.

This pocket guide includes additional references to requirements in UFAS that potentially fall under the Existing Conditions that Can Remain (ECTCR) provisions found in the 2006 GSA ABA Standards at F203.2:

F203.2 Existing Elements.  Elements in compliance with an earlier standard issued pursuant to the Architectural Barriers Act or Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended shall not be required to comply with these requirements unless altered.

F203.2 allows individual elements in certain older facilities that were constructed in full compliance with lesser requirements found in the Minimum Guidelines and Requirements for Accessible Design (MGRAD) or the Uniform Federal Accessibility Standards (UFAS) to remain until they are altered.  As soon as an element is altered, it must be brought into compliance with the current requirements.  This concept is very similar to the safe harbor provision found in the 2010 ADA Standards and regulations. For your convenience, this pocket guide provides a reference to the UFAS requirement where it is less stringent than the comparable ABA Standards requirement.  Due to its short lifespan and other complexities, we have not attempted to reference the MGRAD sections that might apply.

These references are shown in italics within brackets (e.g. [ECTCR UFAS 5.1]) at the end of the ABA section, referring the reader to the comparable, but less strict, section of UFAS. In electronic copies of this pocket guide, the ECTCR reference includes a hyperlink to the UFAS section for your convenience. Where UFAS does not have a comparable requirement to an ABA requirement, the ABA requirement is considered a new requirement and must be followed. This is NOT a comprehensive listing of the ECTCR sections that might apply to any existing element. ECTCR references are not included for residential requirements in the ABA Standard, because residential requirements fall under HUD’s responsibility and not the GSA’s. However, in UFAS, transient lodging (i.e., hotels, motels, and boarding houses) is classified as a residential occupancy (4.1.4(11)(a)). Therefore, we have included ECTCR references from UFAS 4.34 Dwelling Units as they apply to transient lodging.

Definitions from the ABA Standard in Section F106.5 Defined Terms are shown in italics throughout this pocket guide. Selected definitions from the GSA Final Rule are shown with a double underline throughout the text.

UFAS for ECTCR is located in the Appendix and is indicated by brown text.

Hyperlinks are used throughout this publication to assist the reader in several ways. Internal hyperlinks point to other sections of the Pocket Guide or Safe Harbor references where applicable and are indicated by dark blue font. External hyperlinks point to more information to expand on particular sections and subjects, as well as other websites; these links are indicated by light blue font. The most frequent type of external hyperlink is indicated within brackets. These links point to www.Corada.com, the Comprehensive Online Resource for the ADA developed by Evan Terry Associates.  Each Corada “more info…” link offers significantly expanded information and resources relevant to the particular section you are reading. Please note that you will need Wi-Fi connectivity or a data plan and a compatible PDF reader to access external links from your mobile device.  We’ve had excellent success using Adobe’s Acrobat, Readers, and their DC app. Also, ezPDF Reader from the Apple App Store works well on iOS devices. We have found that most Kindle readers don’t allow live hyperlinks to function properly. We expect that some other PDF readers will also have difficulty with hyperlinks and we are testing now to determine which ones work best.  For up-to-date information on PDF reader software compatibility under various operating systems, you can go to www.ETAPocketGuides.com.