Bad Design Style: Case #7

For single family residential houses, ADA design guidelines are not required. Though I would still recommend many of the guidelines because they offer characteristics of accessiblity and safety. Unfortunately this ramp does not follow ADA design guidelines and the drop offs are dangerous. The worst part is that the company that made this ramp used this picture to promote their “barrier free” construction services.

If you go back to my ADA Focus: Ramps article, you’ll see that ADA requires ramps that are 6in or higher in rise to have handrails on both sides of the ramp. There also must be edge protection to prevent wheelchairs from rolling off the side. Not only does this ramp have only a partial railing on one side, but the width of the ramp appears to be fairly narrow.

I’m pretty sure they didn’t add more railings because they didn’t want to break up the concrete to install more posts. Though they could have used post anchors or cut out small sections of concrete for the posts. There are some good characteristics to the ramp such as the slope and large landing. The two stairs seem a bit useless since they face the same direction as the ramp. Well intentioned, but this ramp could have been better.