Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines (ADAAG)

The "Access Board" in Washington, D.C., develops and maintains the Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines, or ADAAG, which has been adopted by the Departments of Justice and Transportation as the design standards for new construction and alteration under the Americans with Disabilities Act. These standards are applicable in all 50 states and provide the minimum required access standard. Individual states, as well as municipalities, have to use standards that meet this minimum standard, but have the option to enforce a standard that is much stricter.

The Access Board has completed work on a new federal standard that was published July 26, 2004. This new standard is also available online at the Access Boards web site. Once this standard is adopted by the Department of Justice, this will become the new enforceable minimum federal standard and will be required to be used as the minimum standard in all 50 states. However, until that adoption takes place, these standards should only be referred to for clarity as existing ADAAG standards must be followed. Full adoption of these new standards is expected to take place sometime in 2009