US Department of Justice Standards - Effective March 2012

We are receiving questions about the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) standard that is becoming effective in March of 2012.  Here are some facts that may help answer some questions:

1. The DOJ is the enforcement agency for the Americans with Disabilities Amendments Act (ADA) of 2008, with an effective date of January 1, 2009.
2. The DOJ enforcement of the ADA comes from an executive order.
3. The executive order requires the DOJ to use its standard in their enforcement of the ADA.

So the question now is where does this DOJ The ADA Amendments Act of 2008 in Chapter 126, Section 1201 and (b) is Purpose where the purposes of this Act are (4) standard comes from?

1. There is a U.S. Government agency call the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board (Access Board).
2. The Access Board is the agency that writes the safe harbor for the design and construction of buildings to be in compliance with the ADA.
3. The Access Board published a document in the Federal Register called the ADA and ABA Accessibility Guidelines; Final Rule on July 23, 2004 with an effective date of September 21, 2004.
4. The DOJ now is required to take this Access Board document and make that document its standard.

I know, we have an Access Board document of 2004 and now we have a DOJ document that say the very same thing with a 2012 date, and if my math is correct, that is EIGHT (8) years later!

1. DOJ must jump through the same “hoops” that the Access Board already did, such as having has having hearings, get input form the community, sending their document to the office of Management and Budget (OMB).
2. The DOJ then publishes its document and call it a standard; and tell everyone that it will start enforcing their standard a year and half later, and that is March 2012.
3. The Access Board, the DOJ, we at ACCESS know the system is broken, and by now maybe the whole country; but, this is our U.S. Government in “action!”  Or, “in action”.

The work product of ACCESS has always been based upon the Guidelines of the Access Board.  Current standards being use since 2004 is the Access Board document of July 23, 2004 with an effective date of September 21, 2004; which is the very same DOJ standard of March 2012.

The above are opinions of Hank Falstad, AIA, Managing Senior Associate of Access Technologies Services, Inc. (ACCESS).  See our web site for additional information:  www.accessts.net.