Do you run an ADA-compliant business? There is more to compliance than building a ramp. For many facilities, the best place to start is with ADA compliant doors that customers, employees, and visitors can use safely.
The Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 gives people who have disabilities the same rights to public spaces as everyone else. Commercial buildings constructed after January 1992 must follow the ADA guidelines, and the Department of Justice publishes the 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design for technical reference.
Even if your building is exempt from this law, ADA compliance makes good business sense. Easier access can increase your customer base, reduce friction at your entrance, and support a better first impression. In many cases, upgrading commercial entrance doors for ADA compliance will not require a major renovation project.
An ADA-compliant commercial door should provide at least 32 inches of clear opening width, use hardware that can be operated with one hand without tight grasping or twisting, keep thresholds low, provide enough maneuvering clearance, and maintain level landings around entrances and ramps. Automatic doors also need proper timing, force limits, and safe operation.
What Are ADA Requirements for Doors?
An ADA-compliant commercial door should create at least 32 inches of space when opened all the way. Most commercial businesses use 36-inch exterior doors, which leaves plenty of room for 32 inches of doorway clearance. Most 34-inch doors also have enough clearance, though handles and hinges can narrow the opening to 32 inches or less. This is the core ADA compliant door width commercial buildings need to meet, whether the door is original to the building or being replaced.
These rules apply the same way to storefront and entrance doors. A glass storefront system, an aluminum-frame door, or a standard steel entry all have to meet the same width and clearance requirements as any other commercial entrance. RCI covers this broader access planning in its commercial door compliance guide.
Width is not the only variable. The ADA also requires a clearance of 36 inches on both sides of doorways to allow for wheelchair maneuverability. For a door located at the end of a hallway, the clearance increases to 54 inches. This total door opening size, including width plus maneuvering clearance, is what most commercial door width requirements measure, not just the door panel itself.
ADA-compliant door thresholds, also called door sills, cannot exceed half an inch high except on automatic sliding exterior doors. Their thresholds can be 3/4 inches tall if necessary. The landing area just outside an exterior door needs to be level and clear too.
RCI Doors™ can inspect your commercial entrances, identify access issues, and recommend practical door and hardware updates.
What Makes a Door Handle ADA Compliant?
Wider doorways help more people access your business, and ADA-compliant door handles help even more. To follow the law, door handles cannot require squeezing or twisting to open. This rules out most knobs and push-button latches.
For most businesses, it is easy to change door hardware to meet ADA guidelines. Door handles must be easy to use with one hand and offer enough clearance to operate without twisting a wrist. Handles cannot be mounted more than 48 inches above the door.
Are Automatic Doors ADA Compliant?
Not all automatic doors comply with the law. To be an ADA-compliant business, your automatic doors must open and close in three seconds or less, and they must stop closing when they encounter no more than 15 pounds of force. For ongoing performance, follow a planned automatic entrance door maintenance schedule.
Double doors must offer at least 48 inches of clearance between the two leaves when both are open, and doors should also have smooth surfaces in case they come in contact with a customer or the customer’s wheelchair, walker, or cane. Since RCI Doors™ is certified by the American Association of Automatic Door Manufacturers, our staff can calibrate automatic doors to follow ADA guidelines. You can also review AAADM’s role in automatic-door safety through the American Association of Automatic Door Manufacturers.
RCI Doors™ services sliding, swinging, and other automatic entrance systems for safer access and more reliable day-to-day operation.
What About Ramps?
The ADA sets specific guidelines for ramps. Ramps should be at least 36 inches wide, and ramps that rise more than 6 inches should include handrails.
A ramp should not rise more than 1 inch for every foot of distance. So, if your door is 2 feet, or 24 inches, above ground level, you would need a ramp that is 24 feet long. Ramps can include multiple turns, and they can make 180-degree turns to save space.
At each turn, the ADA requires a level landing that is at least 5 feet long. The law also requires a 5-foot level landing at the top of the ramp, at door level.
What Is the Most Common ADA Violation?
The ADA is a comprehensive law. It affects a building’s plumbing and electrical systems, its parking lot, and its doors. But inaccessible or non-ADA doors are among the law’s most cited violations, possibly because every customer uses your commercial doors.
Another often-cited ADA violation is signage. People who visit your business for the first time do not know its layout the way you do. As a result, new customers who have disabilities may not know you have built an ADA-compliant business if your signage does not point it out.
Compared to your building’s internal systems, creating ADA door openings and installing proper signage can be simple.
Who Enforces the ADA?
While the ADA is federal law, the federal government will not send inspectors to check out your business’s compliance. Instead, federal regulators respond to lawsuits from customers or advocacy groups.
If someone with a disability sued your business for lack of ADA compliance, the U.S. Department of Justice could get involved. When you have fewer than 15 employees, or when your building predates January 1992, you likely would not be held liable for ADA violations. Still, there are advantages to running an ADA-compliant business that go beyond the letter of the law.
Advantages of ADA Doors and Access to Your Business
Following ADA rules, whether you have to or not, tells your customers that you:
- Care about all your customers: Excluding people who cannot access your business can give the impression your business does not value all its customers.
- Want to grow your business: A business that welcomes all customers can develop relationships with as many customers as possible.
- Feature modern, up-to-date facilities: Roomy, easy-to-navigate ADA-compliant buildings are associated with newer and well-maintained buildings.
- Want to make life easier for everyone: Customers recovering from surgery, dealing with an injury, or simply getting older also benefit from ADA guidelines.
ADA work often overlaps with broader commercial door safety and maintenance. If your entrances are aging, hard to open, or inconsistent, RCI can help through commercial door service and repairs as well as planned upgrades.
RCI Doors™ can help you improve access with compliant hardware, entrance-door service, and automatic-door solutions.
Commercial Door Compliance Is a Great Place to Start
In most cases, your customers will encounter your doors before they encounter you, your products, or your employees. When they cannot use your doors, they cannot take advantage of everything your business has to offer.
Not every business owner has the time or expertise to widen a doorway or change door hardware. RCI Doors™ certified technicians understand ADA compliance, especially as it relates to commercial doors. For automatic systems, the team’s certification background is also explained in RCI’s guide to AAADM certification and commercial door installer credentials.
Contact us today. We can take a look at your doors and develop a plan to bring them into ADA compliance.
ADA door compliance is not just one measurement. Clear opening width, hardware, thresholds, maneuvering space, ramps, and automatic-door settings all work together to determine whether an entrance is accessible.
RCI Doors™ helps North Carolina businesses inspect, repair, and upgrade commercial entrances for safer, more accessible operation.
