Do you want to make your business signs more ADA compliant? Avoid the following mistakes.
ADA is the abbreviation for the American Disabilities Act of 1990. Passed in the year 1990, the ADA is a civil rights act that discourages any discrimination against disabled individuals. This act shares several similarities with the civil rights act of 1964 which discourages discrimination based on caste, color, and gender. With time, this law has been applied to various fields of our lives, and business signage is no exception. Sometimes, businesses make signage mistakes that disqualify their signs from being ADA compliant. In this article, we shall discuss 5 of the most common ADA signage mistakes companies should avoid.
Let’s begin.
- Wrong Font Choice
Poor selection of font is the worst mistake that makes your signs lose ADA compliance. Characters should be in the sans serif font and must be in the uppercase. Also, the characters should be straight instead of italic. Sometimes, there are certain restrictions on the proportions and height of the characters, due to which the font choices can be limited.
- Poor Mounting
Mounting plays a crucial part in making your business signs more ADA compliant. The height of your tactile characters shouldn’t be shorter than 48 inches and longer than 60 inches, above the ground. Failing to meet this requirement, might disqualify your signs from ADA compliance.
- Size of the Characters
Another common ADA signage mistake is the wrong size of your characters. Your tactile character size must be somewhere around 5/8 inches. In case the sign has a dual message, the character size should be 5/8th of 2 inches. However, in such cases, it is better of the character size is reduced to half an inch.
- Misuse of Braille
To the Braille may seem fine, but from the ADA’s viewpoint, it might not be alright. Most people make the mistake of using square dots in their Braille, instead of rounded or domed dots. As far as the spacing between the dots is concerned, there are certain guidelines you can’t skimp on. Furthermore, the Braille on your signs should be placed right under the characters. Failing to abide by these rules can get you in trouble.
- Poor Spacing
One of the things you should be extremely careful when making ADA compliant business signs is the space between characters. The standard space between the characters shouldn’t be more than 1/8 inches. This spacing makes people with weaker eyesight read your signs easily. It is a fact that this spacing makes the characters appear a little off. However, it adds to the readability of your signs.
To make your business signs ADA compliant, make sure to avoid the aforementioned mistakes. Also, by following the ADA sign requirements, you will keep yourself from getting into legal trouble.
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