ADA Affects Small Businesses

The Department of Justice (DOJ) recently revised its regulations implementing the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This revision clarifies some issues that have arisen over the past 25 years and contains some new requirements, including the 2010 Standards for Accessible Design.

DOJ has published a document, ADA Update: A Primer for Small Business, which provides guidance to assist small business owners in understanding how the new regulations apply and how to comply with them. The Primer can be viewed by going to www.ada.gov.

Title III of the ADA, on "public accommodations," applies to both the built environment and to policies and procedures that affect how a business provides goods and services to its customers. The Primer can help small businesses avoid the unintentional exclusion of people with disabilities, and it will also help them know when they need to remove barriers in their existing facilities.

The ADA's regulations and the ADA Standards for Accessible Design, originally published in 1991, set the standard for what makes a facility accessible. While the updated 2010 Standards keep many of the original provisions in the 1991 Standards, they do contain some significant differences. The 2010 Standards are the key for determining whether a small business's facilities are accessible under the ADA, but they are used differently depending on whether the small business is altering an existing building, building a brand new facility, or removing architectural barriers that have existed for years.

Since March 15, 2011, businesses have had to comply with the ADA's general nondiscrimination requirements, including the provisions related to policies and procedures and effective communication. The deadline for complying with the 2010 Standards, which detail the technical rules for building accessibility, was March 15, 2012.

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