ADA Signs
ADA stands for the Americans with Disabilities Act. This is a special law that regulates the norms prohibiting any form of discrimination against disabled people in the US. The requirements listed in this paper are also relevant for interior design elements such as door signs, in particular. Let’s review the peculiarities of ADA-compliant signage plates and their importance for offices, hospitality facilities, and other places.
Introduction
It’s important to realize that things listed in the Americans with Disabilities Act aren’t recommendations. These are obligatory points to follow. Otherwise, local authorities in the US can charge fines for your businesses.
The main point of the ADA is to ensure that all people can comfortably access and navigate through any places they are willing to, regardless of their health issues. When talking specifically about door signs, we emphasize that ADA regulates such features as letters, colors, and dimensions. The placement of a plate is also regulated by the Act. One particular feature of ADA-compliant signs is that they have Braille font, which is a way to ensure no discrimination against people with sight disabilities.
What are the rules?
Any obligatory rules regarding such trifles as door plates might seem confusing to everyone. This provides you with an additional matter for consideration: except for making your door signs correspond to the interior style, you have to make sure that they don’t discriminate against everyone. Actually, this isn’t such a big deal if you take a closer look at the assortment of ADA signs – Bsign Store is the best place for this. Besides, key requirements aren’t too complex to follow. Let’s examine them:
- Compliance with ADA is mandatory for all businesses in the USA. Managers of such facilities as hotels, restaurants, and offices have to ensure that all visitors will have the same possibility to access restrooms, waiting rooms, etc. ADA signs help a lot as they simplify navigation for guests.
- Not every plate must comply with the ADA requirements. For instance, if you have plates in your hotel that don’t serve any informative or navigational purposes, you aren’t required to make these signs ADA-compliant. Nonetheless, we suggest that your business should express the same level of respect to all visitors.
- Compliance with ADA doesn’t refer just to Braille fonts. Regular fonts also have to follow the requirement of readability. Contrast is the best way to ensure this – order signs with white letters on dark plates.
- Braille font is required for door signs that have a big meaning for visitors. Plates attached next to entry/exit points, restrooms, and lifts have to feature letters in Braille font.
Why follow ADA requirements?
- Your business will avoid legal issues. ADA isn’t a set of recommendations, it’s a law regulated by the US Department of Justice. There’s no point in ignoring the law if you want your business to be successful and profitable.
- You show a good gesture of caring attitude to all clients. It’s important for people to realize that providers of services take care of them but not just their money. By placing special signs and following other ADA requirements, you show that your business cares about its reputation and the positive customer experience of visitors. Attract and keep all possible groups of customers.
- Complying with ADA requirements brings more financial benefits than damage. People with disabilities form a huge market share. From a financial point of view, it’s a silly idea to cut off such a big audience. Besides, from the long-term perspective, investments in ADA-compliant signs are smaller than profits that can be brought by this group of clients and fines that can be issued by the Department of Justice.
- Word of mouth is the best marketer. If a person will be satisfied with his or her experience in your facility, she will recommend your business to other people. People are very likely to recommend socially responsible businesses.
- Local and international institutions have special programs that provide financial assistance to businesses that resist any form of discrimination.