FAQ

A place of public accommodation is a facility whose operations affect commerce and fall within at least one of the categories set out in the Americans with Disabilities Act. These locations commonly include hotels, restaurants and bars, theatres, stadiums, grocery stores, sales or rental establishments, shopping centers, and other places of public gathering.

If your business provides goods and services to the public, you are required to remove barriers if doing so is readily achievable. These businesses are identified as a public accommodation because it serves the public. If your business is not open to the public but is only a place of employment (like a warehouse, manufacturing facility, or office building), then there is no requirement to remove barriers. These locations are classified as commercial facilities, and while the owner of a commercial facility is not required to remove barriers, you must still comply with the ADA standards for accessible design when you alter, renovate, or expand your facility.

Yes – but tenants and management companies also have an obligation. Any private entity who owns, leases, leases to, or operates a public accommodation shares in the obligation to remove barriers.

Yes – as amended in 1990, the Internal Revenue Code allows a deduction of up to $15,000 per year for the expenses associated with the removal of qualified architectural and transportation barriers (Section 190). The 1990 amendment also permits eligible small businesses to receive a tax credit (Section 44) for certain costs of compliance with the ADA. Eligible small businesses include one whose gross receipts do not exceed $1,000,000 or whose workforce does not consist of more than 30 full-time workers.

No. As mentioned above, a restaurant is a public accommodation and must remove barriers when it is readily achievable to do so. Although your facility may be “grandfathered” according to local building code, the ADA does not have a provision to grant “grandfather” privileges to a facility. Businesses who offer products or services to the public have an obligation to remove barriers that are readily achievable even when no alterations or renovations are planned.