An ADA sign mounted one inch too high is not a partly compliant sign. It is a noncompliant sign, and replacing installed signage costs considerably more than getting the specification right the first time.
The rules are more specific than most people expect, and also narrower. Not every sign in a building has to be tactile, and several common signs are exempt entirely.
This guide covers which signs are actually covered, the technical specifications for characters and braille, where signs must be mounted, and the errors that come up most often on install day.
Which signs actually have to be tactile
The ADA Standards do not require a building to label its rooms at all. What they require is that where such signs are provided, they comply. The U.S. Access Board guide to sign requirements sets out the scoping clearly.
Tactile requirements apply to a specific list: interior and exterior signs identifying permanent rooms and spaces, required door labels at exit stairways, exit passageways and exit discharge, elevator floor and car control labels, and rail station identification signs.
Permanent room and space designations include room and floor numbers or letters, room names, and labels for restrooms, locker rooms, cafeterias, conference rooms and mechanical rooms. In practice this is most of what goes into a lobby and reception sign package.
Directional and informational signs sit in a different category. They must meet visual requirements, but they are not required to be tactile. That covers arrows to elevators, hours of operation, rules of conduct, and similar content.
Signs that are exempt entirely
Several types do not have to meet either visual or tactile requirements: temporary signs posted for seven days or less, building addresses and directories, occupant names and company names and logos, menus, and seat or row designations in assembly areas.
That creates a nuance worth planning around. A single door sign can carry three categories of content at once. The room number is tactile and visual, the department name is visual only, and the occupant’s name is exempt.
The technical specifications for tactile characters
Raised characters must stand at least 1/32 inch above their background. They must be uppercase and sans serif. Italic, oblique, script and highly decorative forms are prohibited, which rules out a lot of otherwise attractive dimensional lettering treatments.
Character height is where much of the published guidance gets it wrong. Raised character height runs from 1/2 inch minimum to 2 inches maximum. The 5/8 inch minimum applies only where the raised characters also serve as the visual characters.
Stroke thickness of the uppercase I is capped at 15 percent of character height. The uppercase O must fall between 55 and 110 percent of the height of the uppercase I. Line spacing runs 135 to 170 percent of character height.
Characters must also be separated from raised borders and decorative elements by at least 3/8 inch.
Braille
Braille must be contracted, which is Grade 2. Unified English Braille is acceptable, since it is contracted braille and became the official braille of the United States in 2016.
Dots must be domed or rounded, and the standards specify dot height, dot diameter, and spacing both within and between cells.
Position matters. Braille sits below the corresponding raised text, and where the text runs to multiple lines, below the entire block. It must be separated by at least 3/8 inch from the tactile characters and from any raised border.
Capitalization in braille is limited to the first word of sentences, proper nouns and names, individual letters, initials, and acronyms, even though every raised character on the sign is uppercase.
Mounting height and placement
This is the specification that gets missed on installation day. Tactile characters must sit at least 48 inches above the finish floor, measured from the baseline of the lowest tactile character, and no more than 60 inches, measured from the baseline of the highest tactile character.
Because the two measurements are taken from different characters, signs of different sizes can still be mounted on a consistent visual line along a corridor.
At a single door, the sign goes alongside the door on the latch side. Where there is no wall space on the latch side, it goes on the nearest adjacent wall. This is the detail that most often forces a rethink of an office signage layout after the walls are up.
Signs may be placed on the push side of a door only where that door has a closer and no hold-open device. For double doors with one active leaf, the sign goes on the inactive leaf. Where both leaves are active, it goes to the right of the door.
The clear floor space nobody plans for
A clear floor space of at least 18 inches by 18 inches must be centered on the tactile characters, and kept free of protrusions to a height of 80 inches.
That space also has to sit beyond the arc of any door swung open to 45 degrees. On an out-swinging door, this is what sets the minimum distance between the sign and the door frame.
How this connects to the North Carolina building code
The 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design are federal civil rights requirements. They are not the only rulebook in play on a North Carolina project.
The North Carolina State Building Code addresses accessibility in Chapter 11, which relies on the ICC A117.1 standard for the technical provisions. A project is generally expected to satisfy both sets of requirements, and the edition in force should be confirmed with the local building department.
A117.1 also covers ground the ADA Standards do not, including technical specifications for variable message signs and remote infrared audible sign systems.
The mistakes that show up most often
Mounting outside the 48 to 60 inch band. Usually because the installer measured to the edge of the sign panel rather than to a character baseline. The two measurements are not the same thing.
Placing the sign on the door. Permitted only on the push side of a door with a closer and no hold-open device. Everywhere else it belongs on the wall.
Glossy finishes. Raised characters and their background need a non-glare finish, with light-on-dark or dark-on-light contrast. No minimum contrast ratio is specified, but higher contrast is better for readers with low vision.
Pictograms sized wrong. Where a pictogram labels a permanent room, the pictogram field must be at least 6 inches high, with tactile text descriptors below the field. The pictogram itself does not have to be raised. This trips up a lot of otherwise well-executed interior signage programs.
Serif or lowercase tactile text. Raised characters are uppercase and sans serif, with no exceptions. Visual characters, by contrast, may use uppercase, lowercase, or both.
Designing for compliance from the start
Almost every ADA signage failure traces back to the same root cause: the specification was treated as a fabrication detail rather than a design constraint. Mounting height, latch-side placement and clear floor space all affect where doors, walls and furniture end up.
Charlotte Sign Company produces ADA-compliant tactile and braille signage in-house alongside the rest of a building’s custom sign package, for property managers, healthcare facilities, schools and offices across the Charlotte metro. Call 704-303-9153 or request a free consultation to have your plans reviewed before anything goes to production.