What is Readily Achievable Barrier Removal?
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires public accommodations (businesses and non-profit organizations) to provide goods and services to people with disabilities on an equal basis with the rest of the public.
Businesses and non-profit organizations that serve the public are to remove architectural barriers when it is “readily achievable” to do so; in other words, when barrier removal is “easily accomplishable and able to be carried out without much difficulty or expense.”
The decision of what is readily achievable is made considering the size, type, and overall finances of the public accommodation and the nature and cost of the access improvements needed. Barrier removal that is difficult now may be readily achievable in the future as finances change.
This checklist is intended to assist public accommodations as the first step in a planning process for readily achievable barrier removal.
Public accommodations’ ADA obligations for barrier removal can be found in the Department of Justice’s ADA Title III regulations 28 CFR Part 36.304.
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