A. Question 1: Applicability of Section 904.4.1’s Exception
Section 904.4.1 and its exception both require that a sales or service counter be “36 inches (915 mm) high maximum above the finish floor,” and Section 904.4.1 further requires that a sales or service counter be “36 inches (915 mm) long minimum.” 2010 Standards § 904.4.1. In practice, comparing a long hotel registration counter to a short ticket window counter illuminates how Section 904.4.1 and its exception operate. Section 904.4.1 requires that a counter that is longer than 36 inches, like a long hotel registration counter, include a portion that is no more than 36 inches high and at least 36 inches long. But 904.4.1 does not require an entity to lengthen a shorter counter to at least 36 inches. Thus, in contrast, a counter that is less than 36 inches long, such as a 24-inch-long ticket counter at a stadium, falls within 904.4.1’s exception. In that scenario, the entire counter provided to all customers, including customers with and without disabilities, must be no more than 36 inches high. See generally id.
In other words, an entity satisfies Section 904.4.1 whenever it provides a sales or service counter that is of a uniform height of less than 36 inches. See generally id. Such a counter either equals or exceeds “36 inches (915 mm) long”—in which case it complies with Section 904.4.1—or is shorter than 36 inches long, in which case it satisfies the exception. Id. Thus, Section 904.4.1’s separate length requirement is triggered only where an entity provides a sales or service counter that is not less than 36 inches high across its entire length. See generally id.
Here, it is undisputed that Defendants’ transaction counter is a uniform height of less than 36 inches. ECF No. 106 at 1-2. Accordingly, Defendants have complied with Section 904.4.1 or its exception. See generally 2010 Standards § 904.4.1.
Thus, the answer to the Court’s first question is that 904.4.1’s exception is available in “the above-described circumstances,” and would be applicable if Defendants’ transaction counter is less than 36 inches long. ECF No. 106 at 3. If, however, Defendants’ transaction counter is equal to or longer than 36 inches as built, Defendants still have complied with 904.4.1 for the reasons explained below.2
2 The submissions from the Court and the parties do not clearly state the length of Defendants’ transaction counter as built, but instead only that the counter provides less than 36 inches of “clear” counter space. See ECF No. 106 at 1-2; ECF No. 111 at 2-3. The United States has assessed the photographs that the Court and Plaintiff submitted; from those photographs, the length of the counter, as built, appears to be longer than thirty-six inches.
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