Shopping Center Wheelchair Accessibility: Ongoing Advocacy to Implement the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990

Although the regulations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 were phased in by 1992, monitoring and enforcement continue to be problematic. This study of three large shopping centers in the Southwest included one mall that was opened in the mid-1990s, and two malls that were constructed prior to the law (but have undergone recent renovations). Use of the ADA Accessibility Guidelines Checklist for Buildings and Facilities (Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board [ATBCB], 1992) generated data which were analyzed descriptively to determine the frequency and percent compliance in: parking lots, entrances, ramps, elevators, telephones, restrooms, food courts, and 12 specific store-types. No mall was fully compliant in any area, other than telephone specifications. In other areas, compliance ranged from 0% (ramp slopes in the newer mall) to many areas of 100% compliance (for example, outdoor curb ramps and food court seating spaces and aisles). The implications are that shoppers who are wheelchair mobile cannot count on complete compliance and cannot predict which physical architectural barriers they will find in shopping centers.