Guidance on the 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design

Section 35.151 -- Title II Regulation contain any public use or common use areas this section in the final rule but has clarified available for educational programming; that the requirement applies to stadiums, instead, such housing shall comply with the arenas, and grandstands. In addition, the requirements for residential facilities in sec- Department has revised the phrase “wheel- tions 233 and 809 of the 2010 Standards. chair and companion seating locations’’ to “wheelchair spaces and companion seats.’’ Section 35.151(f) uses the term “sleep- ing room’’ in lieu of the term “guest room,’’ Section 35.151(g)(1) ensures that there which is the term used in the transient lodg- is greater dispersion of wheelchair spaces ing standards. The Department is using and companion seats throughout stadi- this term because it believes that, for the ums, arenas, and grandstands than would most part, it provides a better description otherwise be required by sections 221 and of the sleeping facilities used in a place 802 of the 2004 ADAAG. In some cases, of education than “guest room.’’ The final the accessible route may not be the same rule states that the Department intends the route that other individuals use to reach terms to be used interchangeably in the their seats. For example, if other patrons application of the transient lodging stan- reach their seats on the field by an inac- dards to housing at a place of education. cessible route (e.g., by stairs), but there is an accessible route that complies with Section 35.151(g) section 206.3 of the 2010 Standards that Assembly areas could be connected to seats on the field, wheelchair spaces and companion seats In the NPRM, the Department pro- must be placed on the field even if that route posed Sec. 35.151(g) to supplement the is not generally available to the public. assembly area requirements of the 2004 ADAAG, which the Department is adopting Regulatory language that was included in as part of the 2010 Standards. The NPRM the 2004 ADAAG advisory, but that did not proposed at Sec. 35.151(g)(1) to require appear in the NPRM, has been added by the wheelchair spaces and companion seat- Department in Sec. 35.151(g)(2). Section ing locations to be dispersed to all levels 35.151(g)(2) now requires an assembly of the facility and are served by an acces- area that has seating encircling, in whole sible route. The Department received no or in part, a field of play or performance significant comments on this paragraph area such as an arena or stadium, to place and has decided to adopt the proposed wheelchair spaces and companion seats language with minor modifications. The around the entire facility. This rule, which Department has retained the substance of is designed to prevent a public entity from 24 - Guidance on 2010 Standards: Title II Department of Justice