36 CFR Parts 1190 and 1191 ADA and ABA Accessibility Guidelines - Preamble (Discussion of Comments and Changes)

Comment. Comments, most from groups representing persons with vision impairments, called attention to the need for detectable warnings at curb ramps, blended curbs, and cut-through islands. They requested that such a requirement be reinstated in the final rule. A few comments opposed such a change.

Response. The original ADAAG contained a requirement that curb ramp surfaces have a raised distinctive pattern of truncated domes to serve as a warning detectable by cane or underfoot to alert people with vision impairments of the transition to vehicular ways (ADAAG 4.7.7). This warning was required since the sloped surfaces of curb ramps remove a tactile cue provided by curb faces. In response to concerns about the specifications, the availability of complying products, proper maintenance such as snow and ice removal, usefulness, and safety concerns, the Board, along with the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Transportation (DOT), suspended the requirement for detectable warnings at curb ramps and other locations pending the results of a research project sponsored by the Board on the need for such warnings at these locations.²² The research project showed that intersections are very complex environments and that pedestrians with vision impairments use a combination of cues to detect intersections. The research project suggested that detectable warnings had a modest impact on detecting intersections since, in their absence, pedestrians with vision impairments used other available cues. The results of this research indicated that there may be a need for additional cues at some types of intersections, but did not identify the specific conditions where such cues should be provided.

Suspension of this requirement continued until July 26, 2001, to accommodate the advisory committee’s review of ADAAG and resulting rule making by the Board.²³ The advisory committee recommended that the requirement for detectable warnings at platform edges in transportation facilities be retained, but it did not make any recommendations regarding the provision of detectable warnings at other locations within a site. The advisory committee suggested that the appropriateness of providing detectable warnings at vehicular-pedestrian intersections in the public right-of-way should be established first, and that the application to locations within a site should be considered afterward. Consequently, the Board did not include requirements for detectable warnings in the proposed rule, except at boarding platforms in transit facilities. Nor did the Board further extend the suspension, which expired on July 26, 2001. Since the enforcing agencies did not extend the suspension either, the detectable warning requirements are technically part of the existing standards again. DOJ and DOT can provide additional guidance on their enforcement of these requirements pending the update of their standards according to these revised guidelines.

The Board will address and invite comment on detectable warnings on curb ramps in its development of guidelines covering public rights-of-way. Those guidelines will be proposed for public comment based on recommendations from the Public Rights-of-Way Access Advisory Committee. This committee’s report to the Board makes recommendations for detectable warnings at curb ramps. Consistent with the ADAAG Review Advisory Committee’s recommendation, the Board intends to address detectable warnings in public rights-of-way before including any specification generally applicable to sites. Thus, this final rule does not reinstate requirements for detectable warnings at curb ramps or hazardous vehicular areas.