With visions of multi-thousand dollar renovations playing in their heads, business owners often fear the news they’re going to get from Albert Tardie.
Tardie is technical assistance coordinator for the state Governor’s Commission on Disabilities. Part of his job is to help businesses find ways to make their buildings handicap accessible, and comply with state regulations.
Seifert Systems Invests in Energy Efficiency to Strengthen Operations
For manufacturers, energy is more than just another operating expense. It plays a critical role…
Learn More
It’s often not as difficult – or expensive – as owners expect.
“A lot of companies are really surprised,” he said. “In many cases it could be an easy thing to do.”
Easy or not, making their buildings accessible to people with disabilities is an issue with which virtually all businesses grapple. It applies when building new offices or renovating existing ones.
But state officials say it need not be burdensome. And various state and federal tax incentives help make the matter easier for business owners to handle.
For example, small businesses – those with 30 employees or fewer, or those with gross receipts of $1 million or less – qualify for a 50 percent federal tax credit on the first $10,000 they spend to make their building accessible to disabled customers or employees.
Meanwhile, the state has added a 10 percent tax credit to the mix, meaning local small businesses are eligible for a 60 percent tax credit on the first $10,000 they spend. In addition, companies of any size are eligible for a federal tax deduction on the next $15,000.
The law that compels companies to make these investments is the Americans with Disabilities Act, which Congress passed in 1990. The law, which prohibits companies from discriminating against disabled persons, went into effect in 1992.
The law requires businesses to make “reasonable” accommodations for their employees and customers, said Bob Cooper, executive secretary of the Governor’s Commission on Disabilities. He is also the state’s deputy ADA coordinator.
And because of the law, states have created specific guidelines for the construction of new buildings. Rhode Island, for example, adopted the ADA Accessibility Guidelines into its building codes on Feb. 1, 1993.
Because of the law, building owners must bring existing edifices into compliance if their proposed renovation equals 50 percent or more of the total value of the building. If the renovation will cost between 25 and 50 percent of the value, building officials decide if the building must be made compliant.
A renovation that will cost 25 percent or less does not trigger ADA requirements.
This means local code enforcers must check for compliance with state accessibility codes, along with other codes, when approving designs submitted as part of an application for a building permit.
For example, the code says that a new office building must have an elevator unless it has less than 3,000 square feet per floor or has fewer than three stories.
In helping businesses that are renovating, Tardie said he helps companies find the most inexpensive way to meet code. For example, it may be possible to install a platform lift – a kind of miniature elevator – that will carry someone up a flight of stairs.
Such lifting systems, made by companies like The Whitaker Co. in Pomfret Center, Conn., cost less than installing a real elevator, Tardie said.
“We’re not out there to put people out of business,” he said. “We want to open their doors so more people can come in.”
But it is not always a such a simple matter to make an old building – one that was built before the ADA went into effect – comply with new codes. For example, new codes call for doors that open toward you to have an 18-inch clearance on that side of the door so that someone in a wheelchair can get through easily, noted Keith Davignon, a principal at Vision III Architects in Providence.
Buildings built before the ADA went into effect did not have to meet that standard. It presents a challenge for architects who are attempting to help a company renovate, he said.
“You’re going to be faced with situations where it’s extremely difficult to get that kind of clearance,” Davignon said.
Generally, Davignon added, the ADA has forced architects to think differently. Today’s offices must be made accessible to disabled employees and disabled customers, he said.
“Prior to the ADA, handicap accessibility codes were much more geared to the general public,” he said. “In doing renovation work it gets to be challenging, because a lot of these (older) buildings didn’t take accessibility into account.
“The ADA has forced designers and architects to pay attention to those things, and I think most of them do,” he said.
One of the challenges architects face is interpreting requirements correctly. The current process is as follows. An architect submits a design to the building code official as part of an application for a building permit. The code official inspects for state accessibility compliance, along with compliance with all other codes.
If the official interprets the designs as meeting state accessibility codes, a building permit is granted. But architects say the problem is that someone who disagrees with the interpretation of the plans could sue the owner of the building, claiming it does not meet the intent of the ADA.
“One of the most interesting aspects of ADA compliance is the fact that the rules are not as clear as one might expect,” said Christopher Placco, executive vice president of Robinson Green Beretta Corp., a Providence design firm.
“There’s a lot of interpretation that needs to be done during the design phase.”
But Michele Antonio Mallozzi, an architect with the Rhode Island Building Code Commission-Accessibility, Division of Central Services, said most technical requirements in the codes are spelled out precisely.
Someone who is intent on finding fault can do so by challenging the interpretation of virtually any code, he said.
“That’s possible no matter what you do,” he said. “If they want to, they’ll find something wrong with anything.”
Businesses do have the right to ask for a variance from the state building codes if they can show that renovating would create unreasonable hardship, or would be physically impossible. In most cases, however, the state and the business can work something out, Mallozzi said.
For example, a business that claims it can’t afford the renovations may be required to save money over a given period until it can pay for them.
Mallozzi, whose office responds to complaints against companies, said the number of complaints he receives has dropped dramatically since the ADA was adopted, when the office fielded between 150 and 200 complaints per year. Now, it receives only a few per month, he said.
“I don’t think the concern (about accessibility) has waned. I think we’re sort of running out of buildings,” Mallozzi said, when asked why the complaints have dropped. “I think it indicates the progress that has been made.”
With concern for accessibility rising, colleges such as the Rhode Island School of Design have incorporated a concept called “universal design” into their architecture and design curriculums.
