Mabel owns a local coffee roasting company with a café in a historic building. She recognized that there were members of the community who couldn’t access her business due to the building’s heavy, old-fashioned door and wanted to take steps to resolve this. She contacted her regional ADA Center, who advised her that she should follow the 2010 Standards for Accessible Design to make her business more welcoming and accessible to everyone. Automatic door openers are not required by the ADA or Mabel’s state architectural access regulations. However, the door does need to comply with the 2010 Standards for Accessible Design. With the ADA Specialist’s help, Mabel decided that she wanted to install an automatic door opener because it would provide access to people with disabilities and was readily achievable by the company.

The ADA Specialist also sent her the ADA Checklist for Existing Facilities to help the company plan future projects to improve accessibility further and avoid complaints being filed against the business. The time the ADA Specialist took to help Mabel understand the Americans with Disabilities Act made her feel confident in her plan moving forward. 

Using the helpful knowledge provided by her regional ADA Center, Mabel hired a contractor with knowledge of the ADA to make several accessibility changes to their café—including an automatic door opener. Thanks to the ADA, the café’s door is open to serve locally roasted coffee to the whole community.