This rulemaking covers various recreation facilities, including amusement rides, boating facilities, fishing piers and platforms, golf courses, miniature golf courses, sports facilities, swimming and wading pools, and spas. The Board issued these guidelines under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which ensures access to a wide range of facilities in the private and public sectors. The Board is also making these guidelines applicable to facilities covered by the Architectural Barriers Act (ABA), which requires certain federally funded facilities to be accessible. These guidelines supplement the Board's ADA Accessibility Guidelines.
Current Status: On September 3, 2002, the Board issued final guidelines for recreation facilities, which completes this rulemaking. In addition, the Board issued a notice to make the recreation guidelines applicable to facilities covered by the ABA. Related information issued by the Board includes an overview of the rule and summaries of the final guidelines.
What’s Next: No further action by the Board is needed. The requirements of this rule will become part of the enforceable ADA standards once adopted by the Department of Justice.
Background: The Board established an advisory committee of 27 members to make recommendations on guidelines for recreation facilities. The Recreation Access Advisory Committee met from July 1993 to May 1994 and submitted a report to the Board, Recommendations for Accessibility Guidelines: Recreational Facilities and Outdoor Developed Areas.The Board had made this report widely available as a source of guidance until guidelines were developed.
In July 1999, the Board published the guidelines in proposed form based on the committee's recommendations and made them available for public comment for six months. During the comment period, the Board held public hearings on the proposed guidelines in Dallas and Boston. The Board received approximately 300 comments on the proposed guidelines. Comments were submitted by operators of amusement parks, recreation and sporting associations, disability groups, designers, and others. In an effort to provide the public with an additional opportunity for input on the rule before it was finalized, the Board published a summary of changes it intended to make to the guidelines based on its review of comments. The Board held public meetings in Washington, D.C. and San Francisco on the planned revisions. The Board finalized the guidelines based on the additional input it received from commenters.