March 30th speaker: Bill Holl, ADA update

The purpose of my presentation is to let owners and tenants of public accommodations know that they are at risk of being sued for denying access to persons with disabilities under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and what they can do to protect themselves. The California Building Code (CBC) contains Chapter 11B, Accessibility to Public Accommodations. This is the only code enforced by the State Architect and local Building Officials. The ADA is a federal civil rights law and is enforced by lawsuits in state and federal courts. Unlike the state code, the ADA does not grandfather in properties prior to its enactment in 1992 but rather requires that all barriers to accessibility be removed if doing so is "readily achievable", meaning without much difficulty or expense. There are persons with disabilities filing lawsuits at an alarming rate seeking a minimum of $4,000 per violation, and older facilities are at a greater risk.

Bill is an Architect with more that thirty-five years of experience and a Certified Access Specialist (CASp), a certification given by the Division of the State Architect to those who have proven that they are experts on federal and state accessibility laws.