Sarah works for a business that is comprised of basement warehouse and upper-floor office space. Her business is leasing the spaces from a building owner ­­­who is responsible for most of the accessibility issues and being up to building code. But as Sarah understands it, her business needs to make sure the space is physically accessible. Consequently, she was wondering what they need to do in order to do so. To get answers, she called one of our regional ADA centers.

Our ADA specialist and Sarah discussed how she might make structural changes for an employee as a reasonable accommodation. The ADA specialist also emphasized that while the building owner may be responsible for making the building accessible as a whole, Sarah’s business has an obligation to be located in an accessible space. Thus, if an employee or client with a disability comes into her shop and cannot access it, it may become her problem, because she made the choice to set up in an inaccessible location. Sarah understood and set up a call with the building owner to make accessibility improvements to the space.