works department to make sure you are going to meet their standard and not present some kind of tripping hazard. >> here is another blocked by the trash can. this must be accessible. they have very nicely put up a little rail along the path of entry travel from the sidewalk. may not be required, but it's nice that they did it. that's a great example of making a readily achievable barrier removal. couldn't have cost more than a couple hundred bucks to put that railing --. >> that's a good example. the architect and the builder might have understood the concept but the operator doesn't. that's why the trash can is there. somebody is just not thinking. >> in some cases this change of level from outdoor to indoor can be achieved inside the building.

here is an example inside the gnc nutrition store. people don't usually like to do this because you have to give up interior floor space which you are leasing, but in this case it works very well. they have their level landings and it looks like they more or less provide what they need in there. that's great. but they have had to give up all that floor space to do it. in some cases like this case in an older bank building, which is a government office, you simply cannot reasonably put an accessible entry at the main entry. this is, in fact, a historic building and there are limits to what kind of changes you can make and there are also alternatives reasonably allowed under the state historic building code. in this case, where there are lots of people with disabilities who use this office, they have a sign in this, you can see access is on the side of the building, it's about 100 feet down the street. and here it is, here is the accessible entrance on the side of the building and it's

theoretically part of the main path of travel, it's not locked, you don't have to ring a bell, you just have an alternate means of accessible entry to the area. it doesn't take you through the back alleys of the building, theoretically. >> the previous slide was a really good slide to show, even though you don't have wheelchair access at this entrance because there's steps at that location, that you still provide the and rail for somebody who is semi ambulatory coming down the steps to grab on to. even though there is an accessible entrance a little bit further down the road, there's still things that have been implemented there on the stairs. >> but one thing that hasn't been done is striping so people with low vision can see. every tread should have striping. it would seem that the readily achievable standards for the cost of -- how much is this --

$1.29 a foot would provide a contrasting color stripe, two inches wide located no more than an inch from the front of the tread, i think it says. readily achievable. hand rails, everything else you can reasonably do. just because you can't make it wheelchair accessible doesn't mean you give up. >> that's right. >> here is another example of reasonable signage. the more signage, the better, in terms of trying for small businesses to comply. the more signage, the better. they don't cost much, it's reasonable to put them up, it shows that you are taking an active interest in solving this problem. >> it also gets people in the historic -- if i can't figure out where the front door is, i'm not going to go there. simple. >> moving on to finding your way to -- what was this, a burger king? kfc valencia at hill.

this was nothing but trouble. it was so much trouble. because they did a remodel and there were complaints and it was not an accessible entrance. and the owner came to the city and said, i with like to make my building accessible. i with like to put a ramp which you now see here, but it has to occupy the public right of way because it's outside the building on the public sidewalk. the department of public works did not like the idea of encroaching for the private benefit on to the public right of way, but they finally put it in. public works finally gave them the okay. here is looking down. it's an excellent solution. unfortunately, it does encroach into the public right of way and one of the elements of san francisco's general plan which the planning department prepares is that we should be maintaining our sidewalks for public use. there are other ramps around the city. this is a fully complying ramp

that serves a lot of people with disabilities so it has to be completely complying including nonslip-resistant surface, readily achievable to put in slip-resistant surface. hand rails have to terminate at the wall or otherwise extend, not just a stubby little end. this is the other end of the ramp. here we have somebody using a cane coming down the stairs. you see the tape is coming off of this stair? i wanted to mention the behavioral uses that i keep talking about involve maintenance as well. somebody, you can't just put it in and leave it, you have to walk around and say is everything working? and replace the tape and that's a reasonable expectation. >> well, tape is a good retrofit solution, but a better design solution at the beginning would actually be to cast in place stone that has a

darker color so that you have a permanently installed contrasting striping at the nose. >> here we have stairs in a new building. all new buildings are supposed to have all of their entrances accessible. in this case they say, go around the corner. in many cases in san francisco there are occupancies, commercial businesses on lower floors, basements, second floors, they are simply not accessible. what reasonably can we do? . >> there are probably cases where there simply is nothing you can do. >> there are things we could do. >> put in an elevator. >> and rail that comes up, flattens out at the street line and turns around into the wall so you have something to hold on to, one on each side as is required for commercial stairs. we could make sure that it has the tread parking that we've been talking about. they have a little tiny tread mark that looks like it's an inch wide. more contrast. >> the reason for turning the

hand rail back to the building or back on to yourself is so your sleeve doesn't catch on it and pull you down or pull you over. it's actually a safety issue. when you have stairs like this that look relatively steep, the last thing you really want to do is trip one of your customers coming down into your store. >> that's not a sale. that's not a sale. here we are walking down a stair, i believe this is at the muni station where they have a contrasting color vaguely, barely, almost contrasting color stripe. maybe. an alternative to access that we see, both inside the buildings and in this case outside are lifts in elevators. these are difficult, expensive, hard to maintain, hard to use, hard to keep in maintenance and in fact, in this case down at one of the downtown hotels it's hideously ugly, although that's got nothing to do with it, i

guess. but it says push button for attendant to come and help which is not what is allowed or required. the whole concept of disability access is that people can independently get access. you don't need to call somebody to come and let you in. and i tried to figure out why would they do this here? . >> well, they ought to put a key to have an attendant operate it. you do need a key to operate these for the most part or else have them set up where it's always turned on like alwa ys turned on like para lways turn ed on likethat, ring bell for access the reason is so people don't play with them, so kids don't play with them or kids don't get injured. in all the years i have been doing this i have yet to hear of a kid being injured or somebody really playing with

these. they are slow, noisy, they call attention to themselves. for the most part they are going to leave them alone. they are so noisy you can't get away with anything. . >> and they are not inherently dangerous. somebody can't get caught underneath the platform. >> it won't operate until the door is closed and the little microswitch is under the platform. and they provide access. what does one of these cost; do you know? . >> they are about 20,000 last time i priced one out. >> in a case like this there is no reasonable way to put a ramp in. this was the way to provide access. >> i just want to clarify if a chair lift, the one that elevates along a stair, is ever acceptable. >> oh, yeah, chair lifts are acceptable in some uses. there is some on-going

discussion about under what circumstances you are allowed to use an incline platform lift. we're not talking about the little one you sit in, the home elevator -- you are talking about the one you actually have to sit on and it goes up and down. i have never seen that considered to be compliant in terms of meeting commercial requirements in any way. you can use it in your own home. there are these platform lifts that go up the stairs, they are incline platform lifts, and under some circumstances those are acceptable to use. >> i would say the chair lift in and of itself will never work for commercial enterprise. if i was to use it, where would i put my chair? do i haul it along behind me up the steps? . >> you just can't get out of your chair without help, that wouldn't do. >> for home application they are great, but for commercial it just wouldn't work. >> here we have somebody's front door. it requires that you push down

this little button as you grab and pull the thing. it's a little difficult. it's an old knob. it's got some historic value to it. i think reasonable readily achievable barrier removal might say that you adjust the mechanism so that you don't have to actually push the button down to make it work, possibly. here is a really wonderful see's candy accessible entrance. everything is right. the door has nice hardware, easy to open, it's got everything going for that, but you can only achieve that if you are really gutting something out and building a whole new store. we have a problem here. the problem is that this store has a 10 inch or more plate along the bottom so someone in a wheelchair can have the foot area push the door open. but here there's a door stop that they have screwed on to the bottom of the door that's going to catch up on the feet of the chair. is that right, paul? . >> that is right.

what happens is it does catch on the foot plate of a chair so you either get hung up on the door, you stop or it makes it more difficult to get in and out. >> so they did that -- here is the other way, you put the hook on the outside and hook the door open if you want the hook. it's not that much -- but it's simple. there it is, problem solved. in many cases there are no doors at all. here are these guys, i think we saw these guys in a previous show where they -- who can go into the store with these two big guys standing right in the way. this is where you want your customers to come in. >> i want a clarification. if you are doing a retrofit on a door and putting a 10 inch kick plate on the bottom, would it be suitable to only put it on the push side if the door only swings in one direction versus having to put it on both sides where it's not very

useful on the operable side. >> i think so. what do you think, paul? . >> i've never seen a regulation -- it just says 10 inches on the bottom. but i would think as a practical matter you could have it on the pull side. >> would it serve any function? . >> i can't imagine there's any benefit on having it smooth on the pull side. it's the push side, so you can push the door open with the foot plate. chair. here we are going in. now people are puting stuff in the way. very difficult to get in, there's stuff to trip on, for all of us. wheelchair or not, there's all sorts of stuff. here are wheelchair users going into a small store. these very small mom and pop corner stores are very difficult because of the need to have a lot of goods in there to make the business work. this is a real challenge.

this is a store on mission street where they have actually figured it out. the aisles are nice and comfortable, minimum size but comfortable. she's going in, she can turn, she can get to the counter. it may not have the lowered transaction counter we're going to see in a counter here where someone who can't reach up to the full height of the counter can do business. that's a very cheap and easily achievable standard of improving disabled access. here is another counter with no lowered counter area. this is a sushi shop on kerni street. very open, very accessible, but it doesn't have a lowered area to do either service transaction or for other kind of seating. inside the cala market -- now, markets are required to have at least one checkout stand of a sufficient width for people in wheelchairs to use.

and that checkout counter must always be open whenever the market is open. the way that's been solved in most markets is to make them all accessible, which is great, which we think is a good solution, but not required. here at the cala, every one is accessible and they each have the little international symbol of accessibility on them. they also have a little sign that says, if you need any help at all, ask us. a wonderful thing to do. it's not a physical barrier removal, but it's a good way to try and make sure your customers understand that this is an important issue. here is an example of one of these lowered transaction counters at a coffee shop at market street downtown. it's a newly built facility so we required that they do it. what's the height of the lowered transaction counter? 28 to 34 inches. here is another one, another coffee shop on market street. >> kind of small.

>> yeah, there's a width requirement, 36 minimum width for these transaction counters. >> that might work to sit down and enjoy your cup of coffee and consume your food, but in terms of actually being able to access the sales person on the other side, now you are reaching over two obstructions. >> yeah, they would have to be reaching out this long distance over the counter to set something down. be very difficult. another issue we face commonly are surfaces. the code specifies how slippery or slip resistant things have to be. it's very hard to measure, there are some very clear standards but it's difficult to measure. talk for just a second about one of these other issues that i raised and that has to do with employee accommodation. someone is working in this kitchen here, the requirement in the kitchen is that it be accessible, that is, you can get to your work station. the work station in the kitchen or anywhere else, the work

station itself, doesn't have to be accessible with accessible features unless someone says i need to be accommodated in some way. but the code says you have to be able to get to it. and the standards are clear. you need certain width aisles and all that. . >> which is actually pretty vague when you think about it. all you have to do is be able to get to the work station. it doesn't say, like lawrence was saying, that you actually have to use it. what a person's needs, what dultz he require in order for him to use that space. >> my work station in my office next door, i had to have the computer screen lowered because of some vision issues and we all adjust our work stations based on our private needs. some people have to request that their employer help meet those needs and the employer is required to take reasonable measures to help them and in

this andout it has the ada standards for that. >> so the code makes distinctions between an individual work station that can be modified to meet an individual's need and a general employee area that needs to be accessible to all. >> here is a guy's work station at a sign company here in san francisco. what's interesting is he is inserting little braille symbols on signs. so here is a sign, it's a sign that says women's room and it shows the international symbol of accessibility as well and then it has these little braille dots on the bottom here. we're going to ask tom what they actually say here. what do they actually say, tom? . >> it actually says in what looks like code braille, women. it doesn't say women's room, it says women. that's fairly obvious. >> sometimes i wonder what they actually write on these. >> we change them at night.

nasty remarks. >> so these signs, to change the sign from just saying women that you might have to one that says women in braille cost $9.95 for the sign. and readily achievable, i think it probably is. i wanted to talk just for a second about parking. the requirements for access when you are doing construction include the path of travel to the area of remodel, which includes parking. parking in the path of travel for the area of remodel. there are all these required signs and sizes and shapes and spaces. this is at a cala in the mission, this is their space, highly used as a social space, people sitting on the ground eating lunch and walking around, but it has to have exactly the right signage and exactly painted on the ground the international symbol for

accessibility. you have to have a drop off zone next to it which is what the striped area is on the right-hand side. however, you know, just because you have a blue placard or a red placard in your car doesn't mean you can park any place you want in the city and here yesterday down on california street they are towing someone with a disabled placard hanging on their windshield from being parked in a yellow meter for delivery. okay, we have a question in the back. >> just a quick question. you have parking. what about other ancillary accessory areas like storage? if it's accessible for, say, tenants in the building or employees, does that have to comply with accessibility standards? . >> there is access to storage room requirements in the text of the occupancy specific. i think you find it in the b's and the m's, typically, not in the r's, for example. but as a general rule access is required to a storage room. there are other exemptions in

the application chapter for incidental non-occupiable spaces like furnace rooms or equipment rooms. those don't have to be accessible. >> this is a curb ramp. we don't see too many of these in san francisco, but this is at a drop off zone in front of a place that serves as a medical facility. here are some of those truncated domes that tom was talking about that tom doesn't like. in some cases we use these to demark the path of travel across a vehicular area. this is a car rental shop and this shows, theoretically shows, people where to walk across this vehicle area. >> as tom said, though, you want to use them where it's hazardous where the person is about to enter a hazardous area. if this was just a driveway across a sidewalk i'd say don't put them in because then you are going to have them across

every driveway and they become meaningless. you run across them so much they become meaningly. are you at a ramp, are you at a driveway? don't use them everywhere. >> in someone's business they have a telephone used for the public. this telephone is not an accessable telephone, it is not at the right height and it doesn't have the little button that you push that amplifies the sound. here you can see at the upper left you can see the little button that amplifies the sound and it's the right height. i think the phone company will come in and lower it and put in these volume controls. >> there are some private

vendors, non-phone company vendors of pay phones, but -- i'm not sure there still are but they had nonstandard phones where you actually had to read the display to learn how to use the silly thing. >> atm machines, here is one on 16th street, i think, and right in front of it is their little trash can blocking it which is one of these behavioral issues. no matter how well you try to install these things, someone is going to try to foil it. here they put a, they screwed this piece of metal across. it says reach in to get your money. okay, so we can't. one of the problems that some people may have is that you don't know how to get into the

building, there's this push button operating system and we are having some troubles with push button operating systems meeting the intent of the code that everybody gets served the same way. if you know the code, some is systems these day are push button operated and it's very hard to meet the standards of equal access for everybody here. elevators are a very expensive upgrade requirement. hopefully once it's done, it's done. unfortunately, every now and again the disabled access requirements for elevator call stations and buttons change and people have to go back and change them again and then it costs that much again. it becomes a real burden. one of the problems that many of the larger building owners have is that they are trying to stay in compliance and they have to run to keep up with changing regulations. and we're trying to deal with that in some ways, i'm not sure how, by making the california code sort of a safe harbor.

if you complied with the california code, it will be considered that you will have complied for a number of years. this is a non-complying elevator, too high off the ground, the buttons don't fully comply, here is one that's gorgeous and it costs an arm and a leg. bathrooms just for a second, because we are getting near the end. toilet rooms are a big expense to make changes. if you want to make the whole thing comply you have to lay out the fixtures from the very beginning just like this, exactly in the right location. but it's not necessary that you make toilet rooms fully comply if you want to meet the standards. you can do simple cheap reasonable things, you can insulate the drain pipes and the hot water line and we do that so that people who can't feel in their legs can't get burned by hot water.

i understand that's the reason, anyway. having just a narrower apron across the front so someone in a wheelchair can get under the counter, having lever type hardware. here is lever type hardware, readily achievable. this piece of hardware cost $49.99. that's definitely achievable in thebusiness world. you are obligated to do reasonable, make reasonable changes and this is definitely one of them. in the toilet areas themselves, grab bars. if you are not doing a major remodel, just installing grab bars helps a lot of people, not just people transferring from chairs but other people who

need grab bars as well, getting toilet paper holders in the right place, cheap, easy, reasonable stuff to do. >> one thing on this, don't put the toilet paper and the seat cover dispenser above the grab bar. if you think about it, you have to have space to put your arm. if the toilet paper is right above the grab bar, you just made it worthless for everybody. >> there is a higher standard for medical buildings, when you look at chapter 11 which deals with disabled access it says offices of physicians and surgeons and dentists and so on are held to a higher standard, and reasonably so. for anyone who is a health care provider of any sort, i think you need to take exceptional care to make sure you are meeting readily achievable barrier removal. this is muni selling tickets

down at the powell street station, it has no lowered counter area, it has a number of problems. even a temporary use is required it meet these standards of accessibility, especially a brand new thing. this is what they call a cobon, a japanese model of sort of a small station. it should be fully accessible as a new facility. it's 1.30, i promised we would end at 1.30, we'll stick around in case you have questions after. thank you.

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