Are you sure your ADA signs are fully compliant to the ADA regulations? Read on to study the basic ADA sign regulations.
ADA signs with braille and tactile copy have the potential to save lives in emergency scenarios as well as help disabled visitors find their way around business establishments. To be able to deliver those benefits, however, their design needs to meet the detailed ADA sign requirements issued by the ADA and OSHA. In fact, not meeting the guidelines can undermine the safety of your visitors and put you in serious legal trouble.
If you’re a looking to invest in ADA signs, make sure that your signs meet the following requirements.
ADA Signage Requirements
Size
Understandably, you need to get the size of your signs right to ensure that they offer the best value to visitors. The two most important properties to consider here are the average viewing distance.
An ADA signs to be mounted between 40 inches and 120 inches from the ground. The viewing distance, on the other hand, will depend on the layout of the room, logical reading distances, and average traffic flows.
Colors
While there aren’t any limitations on what colors should be used for ADA signs, the chosen colors should be ‘high-contrasting’ for best visibility. This means that color used for sign text and that for the background should be contrasting. ADA signs should have a 70% brightness differential between text and backgrounds. In other words, dark characters should accompany light backgrounds or dark backgrounds accompany light characters.
Braille
It’s mandatory to include raised-letter text and braille in certain ADA signs. Let’s study the related associated requirements:
Braille Grade: Contracted Grade II Braille should be used and most characters should follow the rules for sentence-case capitalization.
Braille Cells and Dots: Each dot containing a Braille cell should be dome-shaped instead of being plateaued or pointed. It should be ¼ of an inch height and a base diameter of 0.06 inch.
Braille Positioning: Braille lines must be positioned directly under their corresponding raised text.
Braille Spacing: On all sides, each Braille dot should have 0.1-inch margins. Braille lines should be 0.4 inches apart from one another, while Braille cells should have 0.3 inches space between them. The space between lines of Braille and the rest of the elements or raised text should be 3/8 of an inch.
Symbols or Icons
Text is often accompanied by symbols or icons in ADA signs to eliminate literacy or language barriers when communicating a message. Pictograms incorporated in an ADA sign must be printed above all lines of tactile and visual characters.
Whenever possible, you should use International Symbols of Access (ISA) in ADA signs. These are globally recognizable icons, regardless of the viewers’ literacy level or native language.
Also, the field height of the pictograms must not be lower than 6 inches.
While the complete ADA sign requirements a lot more detailed, you studied the basic ones in this guide.
For full complaint ADA signs, reach out to Image Signs of McKinney today!
