Universal Designers & Consultants

Bonus Feature: Capozzi Talks About the New ADAAG
Universal Design Newsletter asked new Access Board Executive Director David Capozzi about some significant changes found in the 2004 Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines (2004 ADAAG).

“Everything is covered.” In the 1991 ADAAG things that are not described are not covered, and many non-fixed items, such as dining tables are exempted. The new
standards cover everything (fixed or not) even if not described. “You can’t regulate everything, that is why we have a robust technical assistance line,” says Capozzi. “…We get those calls often. ‘I’m building X and how do I apply your guidelines to that?’” He says that the staff that write the guidelines are the same staff that answer the technical assistance questions and go out and provide training. Aside from having highly qualified personnel consistently and confidently answering questions, the process helps the staff identify issues that might need to be regulated. “You can’t nor should you ever try to regulate everything,” says Capozzi.

“Tolerances.” According to Capozzi, “What we tried to do in 2004 is eliminate the ranges that we had before or the exact numbers. Instead of saying that a toilet had to be 18 inches on center [as in the 1991 ADAAG], and then the question would be ‘what’s the tolerance around 18 inches?’ -- we tried to get rid of all those hard and fast numbers and provide ranges. So instead of 18 inches on center, now we say 16 to18 inches. Then, if we give a range there is no tolerance on the outside. So you really need to design within that range. We were very careful in trying to eliminate any hard and fast numbers to the extent that we could. There are still a few that remain.”
He noted that there are court cases arguing over dimensions that are off by a half an inch. “Not a good use of resources,” he says. The feedback on eliminating the hard and fast numbers has been positive. “One of the things we pride ourselves on is listening to the public. And we do a lot of different things that other agencies don’t… multiple drafts, public hearings, and I think as a result of that we usually get it right,” he says.

A New ADAAG Manual for the 2004 edition? “We are going to take information from the ADAAG Manual and turn it into this online technical assistance series of documents that will be a whole lot more interactive,” says Capozzi of the WGBH project (see The Access Board's David Capozzi: Rising Through the Ranks). “Once we do the online technical assistance, we may still wind up with pieces in a paper based document. I think the best way to deliver technical assistance is in a way that is living and breathing and can be changed based on feedback that we get -- and paper doesn’t offer that…..”