Renovating, remodeling, or altering an existing building
Businesses renovate, remodel, or alter their spaces all the time. The ADA uses the term “alteration” to mean any change to an existing building or facility that affects usability. This includes remodeling, renovation, rearrangements in structural parts, and changes or rearrangement of walls and full-height partitions. The ADA does not consider normal maintenance, reroofing, painting, wallpapering, asbestos removal, or changes to electrical and mechanical systems to be alterations unless they affect usability.
A work crew is renovating a space to make it into a small restaurant.
When passed in 1990, the ADA did not require that all existing buildings be retrofitted for accessibility immediately. Instead, it relies on planned alterations (discussed here) and barrier removal (discussed in lesson 4) to improve accessibility in older buildings over time. It says that when a business alters an existing facility in a way that affects usability, the areas or elements being altered must comply with the ADA Standards.
Primary function area
Any area where people carry out one or more of the major activities for which a facility is used is considered to be a “primary function area” under the ADA. For example, offices and other areas where employees work are primary function areas. The dining area of a restaurant, the meeting rooms in a conference center, the waiting room and examination rooms at a doctor’s office, the customer service area of a retail shop, and other areas where the public is served are primary function areas.
The route and amenities that serve a primary function area
A core concept in determining if a building is accessible or not is the path a person travels in getting from the parking area or sidewalk into the building, to the areas where he or she works or is served as a customer, and to the restrooms and other amenities that are provided in the facility.
When a primary function area is altered, the path of travel to the altered area and the amenities serving the altered area must be made accessible, unless the costs for these changes are disproportionate. The costs for the added alterations are considered disproportionate if they exceed 20 percent of the cost of the overall alteration. In this case, you should make as many of the changes as you can without going over the 20 percent limit. Use this order of priority: entrance; route to the primary function area; at least one unisex restroom or one restroom for each sex serving the area; public telephones serving the area; drinking fountains serving the area; other elements.