Is a Shower Seat Required for All Roll-in Showers?

This past week we were finishing a 15 hour training program for three of our new ADA audit architect.  They each have over 20 years of architectural experience.  We were on-site looking at a roll-in shower and the question was asked is a shower seat required? 

A shower seat is a requirement of the 2009 International Building Code (IBC) in section 11076.1.1 and says, "shall include a permanently mounted folding shower seat."

The Access Board final rule in section 608.4 says, "A folding seat shall be provided in roll-in type showers." 

Here we have IBC and ADAAG in agreement on the requirement for a folding seat.  IBC has greater clarity in that it must be a permanently mounted folding set.  All the templates used by ACCESS in our detail ADA building audits and detail ADA building plan checks include the accessibility requirements of the ADA, IBC and ICC/ANSI A117.1.

So the answer is the shower seat is a requirement of the ADA, IBC and ICC/ANSI A117.1 and all have to be reviewed to obtain total accessibility compliance.

Give us your comments here or on our FaceBook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Access-Technologies-Services-Inc/268659564730#!/.  You can also contact us at hfalstad@accessts.net or call us at (702) 649-7575.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Hank