Welcome to our Disable Access page where we hope to give you information on this very confusing topic. Most business owners do not understand that providing disabled access is not an option.  This is a Federal civil rights law that applies to ALL businesses no matter how old the business is.  You may someday find yourself in a lawsuit with a disable person who can show, you are not meeting the current laws.  At this point you will need to show that you have made an effect to correct access barriers at your facility.  A great pamphlet on this subject can be downloaded at http://www.ada.gov/smbusgd.pdf  which explains this in detail.

But I am in a new facility!  Doesn’t matter, many facilities even built within the last couple years do not meet the current standards.   How is that possible?  Many Building Officials and Architects just did not get the training needed because it just was not available.  The other item that complicated things was that California decided to create their own Disabled Access Code.  This Code actually had conflicts with the Federal law and caused a number of facilities to be built with infractions to the Federal law.  

We at MW Architects, Inc are trying to educate businesses so they will not be a target for  lawsuits.  If you would like, we would be willing to provide a free walk-through inspection pointing out any major infractions you may have.  Give Wayne our in house accessibility expert a call at 805-544-4334 extension 108

Below is a number of links to helpful information regarding this topic