ADA Requirements for Signs: Standards and Compliance

When it comes to creating an inclusive environment, ensuring that everyone, regardless of ability, can navigate a space with ease is essential. This is where ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) requirements for signs come into play. 

These standards are designed to make public spaces accessible for everyone by providing clear, readable, and easily identifiable signage. 

In this blog, we’ll delve into the ADA requirements for signs, covering the key standards that businesses and public facilities must adhere to in order to remain compliant. 

What Are the ADA Requirements for Signs?

Any public facility that makes use of signage in and around a building should be aware of the following requirements.

Mount Location

• Permanent Room Signs: Signs that designate permanent rooms and spaces must be mounted on the wall adjacent to the latch side of the door. The sign should be located 48 to 60 inches (121.92 to 152.4 cm) above the finished floor to the centerline of the sign. If there is no door, the sign should be mounted at the nearest adjacent wall.
• Directional and Informational Signs: These signs should be located where they can be easily seen and read from a standing or seated position. There are no specific mounting height requirements for these types of signs, but they should be placed in a location that is easily visible.

Level of Contrast

Signs must have a high contrast between the characters and their background. The contrast should be at least 70% to ensure readability. Dark characters on a light background or light characters on a dark background are recommended. This contrast is essential for people with visual impairments to distinguish the text clearly.

Font and Character

• Font Style: A sign’s characters must be in a sans serif font, which means they should not have any decorative elements or serifs (small lines or embellishments at the ends of characters). Examples of acceptable fonts include Arial, Helvetica, and Verdana.
• Prohibited Fonts: Italics, oblique, and script fonts are not allowed as they are harder to read for individuals with visual impairments.

Case

• For tactile signs (those that include raised characters), all characters must be uppercase. This standardization helps with readability and recognition through touch.
• For visual-only signs, mixed case (upper and lowercase) may be used, though uppercase is still preferred for consistency.

Size

• Tactile Characters: The height of raised characters must be between 5/8 inch and 2 inches (1.59 and 5.08 cm).
• Visual Characters: For signs intended to be read from a distance, the height of the characters must be based on the viewing distance. A general rule of thumb is that the character height should be 1 inch (2.54 cm) for every 10 feet of viewing distance.

Spacing

The space between individual characters must be at least 1/8 inch (0.318 cm) and must be at least 1/16 inch (0.16002 cm) between the raised characters and any border or decorative element. The spacing between lines of text should be 135% to 170% of the character height to ensure readability.

Stroke Thickness

The stroke thickness of characters should be approximately 10% to 20% of the character height for visual clarity. This ensures that the characters are not too thin, which could make them difficult to read, especially from a distance.

Braille Text

• Braille must be included on signs that designate permanent rooms and spaces. The Braille should be located directly below the corresponding text and should be Grade 2 Braille, which is a more abbreviated form of Braille.
• The Braille dots must be domed or rounded, with a dot height of 0.025 inches and a distance of 0.1 inches between the dots within a cell, and 0.2 inches between corresponding dots in adjacent cells.

Final Thoughts

Applying these simple standards to the signage around your facility can make a big difference to the experience that disabled visitors, residents, and employees have at your public facility. It will also ensure you can steer clear of costly ADA-related penalties. 

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