ADA Handicapped Parking Regulations for Restaurants
Since restaurants are public establishments, when they have a parking lot, they have to provide parking spaces for the more than 54 million Americans who have some physical handicap. The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) specifies the details of what accessible parking means in section 4.6 of the law.
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Significance
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The parking regulations in the ADA act are designed so that people with physical handicaps will have the shortest possible distance to travel from their car to the entrances of the restaurant or other public building. The act specifies that ADA accessible parking spaces must be the ones closest to the doors. If a large building has several doors, there should be accessible parking spaces close to each one.
Features
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ADA accessible parking spaces must be wide enough for a wheelchair to pass safely between two cars. They must, therefore, be no less than 96 inches wide. This area is called the "parking access aisle." While each ADA accessible parking space can have one access aisle, the law allows two adjacent ADA accessible parking spaces to share the aisle between them.
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Function
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If the restaurant parking lot is built on a slope, the ADA accessible parking spaces must be where the slope is no more than a 2 percent. Otherwise, people in wheelchairs could be at risk for rolling down the slope when entering or leaving their cars. It is also more difficult for people using crutches or walkers to go up and down hills.
Size
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The act also regulates how much "vertical clearance" an ADA accessible parking space must provide. The roof of the parking area must be no lower than 114 inches at the "passenger loading zone" where an individual will be transferred from a wheelchair to the vehicle. The roof of the parking area must also be at least 98 inches above the ground along the entire path between at least one ADA accessible parking space and the door of the restaurant building.
Benefits
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Finally, the passenger "access aisles" next to the ADA accessible parking spaces have to be at least 5 feet wide and 20 feet long. If there is a curb between the door of the restaurant and the access aisle, the curb has to meet the regulations in section 4.7 of the act. These regulations set the legal standards for curb ramps, their maximum slopes and their widths. Everything in the ADA act is designed to make our public spaces more user-friendly and inclusive to Americans and tourists from abroad who use wheelchairs or have other disabilities. Accessible parking spaces are key to helping everyone enjoy our restaurants and other public buildings.
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