The term "ADA Signs" has come into common use in the architectural and construction industries with the advent of the Americans With Disabilities Act, or ADA.
In general, almost every sign that would be considered an "architectural" sign must comply with one or another of the ADA Guidelines. In other words, if a sign identifies a permanent room or space of a facility, including exits, directs or informs about functional spaces of the facility, or identifies, directs to, or informs about accessible features of the facility, it must comply.
Although, because of the rules requiring braille on some signs, the signage section is looked upon as benefitting persons who are blind and visually impaired.
The general rules for signage covered by the law are these: (the exact wording may be consulted on the website of the United States Access Board at www.access-board.gov
All signs must have non-glare backgrounds and characters.
All signs must have a high dark to light (or vice versa) contrast between characters and their background. The important issue is not color, but lightness and darkness. Thus, a sign with very light gray letters on a charcoal gray background would be fine, but a sign with red letters on a black background would not.
All signs must have "easy to read" text. The rules are different for signs that identify rooms and spaces, and signs that direct and inform. That's because persons who are "functionally blind," that is, have no usable vision are able to locate doors, and therefore can locate signs adjacent to doors that identify them, but have no consistent way to find directional and information signs that could be located anywhere along corridors.
Directional and informational signs can use upper and lower case letters (recommended by many experts for visual readability) and "simple" typefaces of a non-decorative nature. No condensed or extended fonts are allowed. Strokes are of medium weight, not too bold or too thin. The size of the letters is dictated by the distance of the sign from the expected position of the sign reader.
Signs that identify rooms and spaces are to be located adjacent to the door they identify so they can be located by persons who are functionally blind. Tactile signs require uppercase characters in sans serif typefaces. The characters can be from 5/8 inch to 2 inches high. The braille must accompany the characters (usually placed below the characters) and must be Contracted Braille (formerly called Grade 2 Braille). The signs are installed 60 inches on center from the finish floor. If pictograms are used to identify the space (example: restrooms with gender pictograms), they must be in a six inch high clear field and accompanied by a tactile character and Braille label below the field.
There are four pictograms that stand for accessibility. One is the familiar "wheelchair symbol." It's used generally to show that persons with mobility impairments can access entrances, restrooms, or pathways. Three are specifically for persons with hearing impairments. The "ear" pictogram is the International Symbol of Access for Hearing Loss, and is used to show the availability of an assistive listening system. The "keyboard" pictogram stands for a TTY or text telephone. The "phone" pictogram with sound waves stands for the availability of a volume controlled phone.
