Revised ADA Requirements: Accessible Pools Means of Entry and Exit

Existing Pools

Title II Program Accessibility

Individuals with disabilities cannot be excluded from or denied participation in State and local government programs, services, or activities because a facility is inaccessible or unusable. This means that all programs, services, and activities, when viewed in their entirety, must be accessible to individuals with disabilities unless doing so results in a fundamental alteration in the nature of the program or in an undue financial and administrative burden. This requirement is known as "program accessibility."

Program accessibility applies to all pool-related programs, services, and activities (swimming programs). Program accessibility does not typically require that every pool be made accessible. However, if a public entity has only one existing pool, it must take steps to ensure that its swimming program at that pool is accessible.

A public entity determines which method it will use for meeting its program accessibility obligations. When structural changes are made to existing pools, including installation of a fixed pool lift, the changes must comply with the 2010 Standards. If a public entity chooses to acquire equipment (e.g., a portable lift) to provide program accessibility, the entity should select equipment that includes features required by the 2010 Standards, including independent operation by individuals with disabilities. Sharing accessible equipment between pools is not permitted, unless it would result in undue burdens to provide equipment at each one. Accessible pool features must be available whenever the facility is open to the public. When choosing to purchase equipment or to make structural changes, the public entity should factor in staff and financial resources required to maintain program accessibility. 

Over time, a public entity will need to reassess its compliance with program accessibility, and it may become necessary to acquire new accessible equipment or make structural modifications. For more information about program accessibility, see the title II regulations at Section 35.150.

To determine which pools must be made accessible, public entities should consider the following factors:

• How to provide swimming programs in the most integrated setting appropriate;
• The ways in which people participate in the programs (e.g., individually, in families, in youth groups);
• Locations where the programs are offered;
• What programs are offered at each pool and to which constituencies (e.g., family swims, children's swimming lessons, older adult exercise classes, high school swim meets);
• Which pools are accessible and to what extent; and
• Level of dispersion of the accessible locations and convenience to reach them (e.g., one pool in each quadrant of the town, all on accessible mass transit).

Title III Readily Achievable Barrier Removal

Title III of the ADA requires that places of public accommodation (e.g., hotels, resorts, swim clubs, and sites of events open to the public) remove physical barriers in existing pools to the extent that it is readily achievable to do so (i.e., easily accomplishable and able to be carried out without much difficulty or expense).

Determining what is readily achievable will vary from business to business and sometimes from one year to the next. Changing economic conditions can be taken into consideration in determining what is readily achievable.

For an existing pool, removing barriers may involve installation of a fixed pool lift with independent operation by the user or other accessible means of entry that complies with the 2010 Standards to the extent that it is readily achievable to do so. If installation of a fixed lift is not readily achievable, the public accommodation may then consider alternatives such as use of a portable pool lift that complies with the 2010 Standards. It is important to note that the barrier removal obligation is a continuing one, and it is expected that a business will take steps to improve accessibility over time. When selecting equipment, the public accommodation should factor in the staff and financial resources needed to keep the pool equipment available and in working condition at poolside. For more information about barrier removal, see the title III regulations at Section 36.304.

If you have purchased a non-fixed lift before March15 ^th that otherwise complies with the requirements in the 2010 Standards for pool lifts (such as seat size, etc.), you may use it, as long as you keep it in position for use at the pool and operational during all times that the pool is open to guests. Because of a misunderstanding by some pool owners regarding whether the use of portable pool lifts would comply with barrier removal obligations, the Department, as a matter of prosecutorial discretion, will not enforce the fixed elements of the 2010 Standards against those owners or operators of existing pools who purchased portable lifts prior to March 15, 2012 and who keep the portable lifts in position for use at the pool and operational during all times that the pool is open to guests so long as those lifts otherwise comply with the requirements of the 2010 Standards.  Generally, lifts purchased after March 15, 2012 must be fixed if it is readily achievable to do so.  

To determine which pools must be made accessible, public accommodations should consider the following factors:

• The nature and cost of the action;
• Overall resources of the site or sites involved;
• The geographic separateness and relationship of the site(s) to any parent corporation or entity;
• The overall resources of any parent corporation or entity, if applicable; and
• The type of operation or operations of any parent corporation or entity, if applicable.