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Design Tip: Clear Widths for Queing Lines
When it comes to queing lines in restuarants, the Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines (ADAAG) 4.3.3 indicates that an accessible route is required to be 36 inches wide minimum “except at doors” which appears to contradict paragraph 4.2.1. Paragraph A4.2.1, Fig. 1
ADAAG 4.2.1, and Fig. 1 of the Americans with Disabilities Act Standards for Accessible Design (ADASAD) require the minimum clear width for wheelchair passage to be “32 inches at a point and 36 inches continuously.” The appendix section A4.2.1 explains the rationale behind these numbers and ends by stating, “… when an opening or a restriction in a passageway is more than 24 inches long, it is essentially a passageway and must be at least 36 inches wide.”
Paragraph 403.5 of the new Americans with Disabilities Act/Architectural Barriers Act Accessibility Guidelines (ADA/ABA-AG) and ICC/ANSI A117.1 Standard for Accessible and Useable Buildings and Facilities 2003 allows the 32 inches minimum clear width to occur anywhere, as long as the restricted width is no more than 24 inches long and is separated by a distance of at least 48 inches (the length of a wheelchair clear floor space) from the next restriction. In other words, 32 inch minimum clear width does not exclusively apply to clear width at accessible doors.
For example, this would allow columns to reduce the clear width of grocery store aisles, or parking meters to reduce clear widths for short distances.
Figure 403.5.1 Clear Width of an Accessible Route
Source: Americans with Disabilities Act/Architectural Barriers Act Accessibility Guidelines
This is an exerpt from Universal Design Newsletter’s “Aha! Moments.” Accessibility experts know that no one knows it all. Those in the field occasionally come across technical accessibility criteria anomalies that evoke an “Aha! Moment.” This column seeks to identify those surprising criteria and present opinions as to their intent. We welcome your discoveries as well. If you have comments or other examples of strange things you have found in the technical standards that made you scratch your head or otherwise change your mind -- send them to us.