Access for Everyone

Preface

We created Access for Everyone to help people better understand accessibility. Built environments should be both inviting and inclusive, and should accommodate the needs of all people to the maximum extent possible. Understanding people’s needs is an important first step in meeting the complex challenges in designing, constructing, and maintaining accessible buildings and sites.

In Access for Everyone we attempt to present the accessibility issues and solutions for buildings and sites in a format that is easy to understand, quick to grasp, and accurate. Access for Everyone provides accessibility standards of the Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines (ADAAG) and our recommendations in straightforward language, with clear directives and realistic illustrations.

Conceiving and creating accessible environments involves more than just meeting minimum accessibility requirements. Therefore, Access for Everyone also includes additional recommendations based on universal design principles that go beyond ADAAG. Universal Design is the idea that designs should work well for all people, regardless of variations in ability.

Whether you are a design professional evaluating accessibility for a multi-million dollar project or a small business owner remodeling a store or office, Access for Everyone is a useful resource document. Access for Everyone is intended to be a companion document to existing standards and technical materials and not a substitute for them.

Access for Everyone will help you:

• Understand the design needs of all people, including people with disabilities
• Understand the basic requirements of ADAAG
• Understand recommended dimensions that are based on universal design concepts
• Identify features of buildings and sites that need to be analyzed for accessibility
• Decide what actions need to be taken to make new and existing buildings and sites accessible to all people