Two dates do more work in ADA compliance analysis than any other piece of information: January 26, 1993 and March 15, 2012. If you don’t know which side of each date your building is on, you cannot answer the most basic compliance question: “Which version of the Standards applies to this feature?”
The short version
- Built before 1/26/1993 — pre-ADA. The 1991 Standards did not yet exist when the building went up. Existing features do not automatically have to meet any ADA standard, but barrier removal where “readily achievable” is still required under Title III, and any post-1993 alteration has to meet the Standards that were in effect when the alteration was done.
- Built 1/26/1993 through 3/15/2012 — the 1991 Standards era. Features that complied with the 1991 Standards when built retain “safe harbor” — you are not required to bring them up to the 2010 Standards just because the 2010 Standards exist. Any alteration performed on or after 3/15/2012 has to meet the 2010 Standards in the altered area.
- Built after 3/15/2012 — the 2010 Standards era. Full compliance with the 2010 Standards is expected. There is no safe-harbor shortcut for a non-compliant feature.
What “safe harbor” actually means
The 2010 Standards introduced a handful of changes that made some features stricter than they had been in 1991 — most famously, the increase in accessible-route minimum clear width in certain applications and the new requirements for wheelchair-space sight lines in assembly areas. If a feature was built to the 1991 Standards and was compliant at the time, the 2010 Standards generally do not require the owner to tear it out and rebuild it to the tighter 2010 numbers. That’s the “safe harbor.”
It is a narrow shelter. Three things end it:
- An alteration to the feature. The moment you alter a feature after 3/15/2012, the altered portion has to meet the 2010 Standards. Replacing a sink, regrading a ramp, or re-striping a parking lot can all trigger this — the line between “routine maintenance” and “alteration” is fact-specific and not always obvious.
- The feature never actually complied in the first place. Safe harbor only protects features that did meet the 1991 Standards. A feature that was non-compliant in 1995 is still non-compliant today; the safe harbor does not retroactively legitimize it.
- The feature is one the 2010 Standards specifically excluded from safe harbor. The Department of Justice listed specific categories — for example, certain play areas, recreational facilities, and golf courses — where the 2010 Standards apply regardless of prior 1991 compliance.
The “readily achievable” obligation never went away
Even for pre-1993 buildings, Title III of the ADA has always required barrier removal where doing so is “readily achievable” — meaning it can be accomplished without much difficulty or expense. The test is financial and operational, not aesthetic. Widening a doorway by rehanging a door, installing grab bars in an existing restroom, or relocating a display rack to clear a path are classic “readily achievable” fixes. A small business that points at a pre-1993 build date as a defense to a no-grab-bars complaint is likely to lose that argument.
Why the Report form asks about renovations
The violation-report form on this site asks for the year the building was built, whether it has been renovated, and — if so — when and what was renovated. That is not paperwork for its own sake. If the feature you are reporting is in a 1978 building that was never touched, the analysis is different from the same feature in a 1978 building whose restrooms were gutted in 2019. In the first case, the question is whether removing the barrier is readily achievable; in the second, the renovated restrooms should have been built to the 2010 Standards in full.
Bottom line for property owners
Know your dates. Keep permits and build records. If you renovate anything after March 15, 2012, bring the altered area up to the 2010 Standards — not the 1991 Standards that happened to be in effect when the original building went up. And recognize that “we’ve always done it that way” is not a defense if the feature never actually complied.