Compliance
ADA Signage in Lake County, IL
Tactile characters, contracted braille and mounting heights that match the 2010 ADA Standards, on a sign package that matches the rest of your building.
Start with scope, not with product
The most expensive mistake on an ADA sign package is not a wrong dimension. It is buying the wrong category of sign. The 2010 ADA Standards do not apply one rule to every sign. Section 216 sorts signs into categories first, and the category decides whether tactile characters and braille are required at all.
Three categories carry an interior package.
Signs identifying permanent rooms and spaces (216.2). These comply with 703.1, 703.2 and 703.5. That means raised characters plus braille, which 703.2 brings in by cross reference to 703.3, plus visual legibility. Room numbers, restroom designations, stairwell identification, mechanical and electrical rooms, named conference rooms.
Directional and informational signs (216.3). These need to comply with 703.5 only: visual characters. Raised characters and braille are not required. An arrow to the cafeteria, an overhead corridor sign, a policy notice by the entrance.
Means of egress signs (216.4). Section 216.4.1 is explicit: doors at exit passageways, exit discharge and exit stairways are identified by tactile signs complying with 703.1, 703.2 and 703.5.
One exemption is worth knowing: temporary signs posted seven days or less are not required to comply with Section 216 (216.1 Exception 3). That exception is specific to Section 216 scoping, not a blanket pass from Section 703 everywhere it appears.
This gets missed in both directions. We have walked buildings that paid for braille on every directional arrow in a corridor and were missing tactile signs on the stairwell doors. One of those is wasted money. The other is what gets flagged. The full list is on common ADA signage mistakes.
What we build
Tactile room identification and restroom signs with contracted braille. Pictogram signs. Egress and stairwell door signs. Department and suite identification. Engraved plaques and name plates. Directories and directional signs built as visual character signs, because that is what the Standard asks of them. We also refurbish and repair existing sign systems, which on an inherited package is usually cheaper than replacing the whole scope.
Signs are fabricated in coordinated finishes and typography so the compliant signs do not read as a later, cheaper system bolted onto the building.
The dimensions that get checked
| Requirement | Figure | Applies to | Section |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tactile mounting height | 48 in minimum to the baseline of the lowest character, 60 in maximum to the baseline of the highest | Signs with tactile characters | 703.4.1 |
| Raised character height | 5/8 in minimum to 2 in maximum, based on the uppercase letter I. A 1/2 in minimum applies only where separate raised and visual characters carry the same information | Tactile characters | 703.2.5 |
| Raised character depth | 1/32 in (0.8 mm) minimum above the background | Permanent room and space ID signs | 703.2.1, 216.2 |
| Case and style | Uppercase only, sans serif, no italic, oblique, script or highly decorative forms | Tactile characters only | 703.2.2, 703.2.3 |
| Stroke thickness | 15 percent maximum of the character height, measured on the uppercase letter I | Tactile characters | 703.2.6 |
| Braille | Contracted (Grade 2), positioned below the entire text block, separated 3/8 in minimum from other tactile characters, raised borders and decorative elements | Where braille is required | 703.3, 703.3.2 |
| Pictogram field | 6 in minimum height, with a tactile text descriptor directly below | Pictogram signs | 703.6.1, 703.6.3 |
| Visual character height above floor | 40 in (1015 mm) minimum | Visual characters | 703.5.6 |
| Contrast and finish | Non-glare finish, light on dark or dark on light. No contrast percentage is specified | Visual characters | 703.5.1 |
| Clear floor space at the sign | 18 in by 18 in minimum, centered on the tactile characters, beyond the arc of the door swing between closed and 45 degrees open | Tactile signs at doors | 703.4.2 |
Every figure here was checked against the primary text. Braille dot dimensions, the visual character height table, pictogram rules and the Illinois specifics are in the ADA signage requirements guide.
How we scope a building
From drawings. Send the architectural set and whatever sign information exists: a Division 10 14 00 specification, a sign schedule, a door schedule. We return a message schedule keyed to room numbers on the plan, a sign type legend, and shop drawings dimensioned for submittal. You approve before anything is fabricated, and the approved submittal is what gets built and installed.
From the building. On a renovation or a building nobody has drawings for, we field survey instead: every opening photographed, every existing message recorded, wall conditions and mounting space noted at each door. That survey becomes the same message schedule, and it tells you what can be reused.
Either way the deliverable is a document a general contractor or an architect can review, not a quantity and a price.
When an inspector flags something
A complaint or a failed review is not usually a whole building problem. The work is separating real noncompliance from signs that were never in scope.
We survey the flagged areas, sort every sign by its Section 216 scoping provision (room identification under 216.2, directional and informational under 216.3, egress under 216.4, the specific requirements in 216.5 through 216.12 such as toilet room signage under 216.8, and the exemptions in 216.1), measure mounting heights against 703.4.1 rather than the superseded centerline rule, and produce a corrections list with the section number next to each item. What is genuinely out of compliance gets fixed. What is not gets documented with the citation, so the same question does not come back next year.
Handing the authority having jurisdiction a list with section numbers moves faster than handing them a sign catalog.
Coordinating with the rest of the package
ADA signs are not a standalone purchase. They carry the room numbers your room identification scheme assigns, they have to match the typography and finishes of the wayfinding signs in the same corridor, and they share a building with the interior graphics that carry the brand. Bought separately, a building ends up with three type families and two numbering logics, and every sign in it can be individually compliant while the building is still hard to navigate.
We scope them together. Facility managers get one schedule for the whole package. General contractors get one submittal, one set of shop drawings and one closeout document.
Illinois
The 2018 Illinois Accessibility Code (71 Ill. Adm. Code 400) is Illinois’s own code, not a pointer to the federal one. For signage specifications it does not deviate: Section 703 is reprinted with no Illinois specific changes, so the figures above are what Illinois enforces. Parts of the Section 216 scoping chapter were edited, which the requirements guide covers.
This page is a practical summary for planning. The controlling documents are the 2010 ADA Standards and the Illinois Accessibility Code, and your authority having jurisdiction makes the final determination.