Tactile warning is an abrasive or knurled strip on a lever handle to indicate that the door leads to a hazardous area such as a boiler room, mechanical room, or loading dock. This requirement is no longer included in the Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines (ADAAG) or in ICC/ANSI A117.1, but it is a requirement of the Massachusetts Architectural Access Board (521 CMR):
26.11.4 Special hardware: Doors opening into hazardous areas shall have door-opening hardware which is knurled or has a roughened surface to give tactile warning to persons with visual impairments. Hazardous areas shall include but not be limited to loading platforms, boiler rooms, and electrical equipment rooms.
To access the Massachusetts Architectural Access Board requirements (521 CMR) online, click here.
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This is also still a requirement in the City of Chicago:
18-11-1109.9.5 Doors to hazardous areas.
The handle, knob, pull or other operating hardware on doors, leading to rooms or spaces that may be dangerous or cause injury to a person with a visual impairment who accidentally enters such a room or space, shall have a textured surface. The surface shall be made by knurling or roughing or by applying material to the contact surface that has a similar effect. Textured surfaces shall not be provided for means of egress doors. Such rooms or spaces include, but are not limited to, loading docks, boiler and furnace rooms, power generation facilities, electrical and telephone equipment spaces, elevator equipment rooms and elevator pits, tanks, lagoons, storage and processing facilities, highly technical facilities, mechanical, electrical or chemical storage or processing facilities, pump facilities and spaces with complex mechanical components of multi-level construction.
Why can’t the requirement simply be, that these rooms shall be required to have storeroom lock sets. That would solve the problem. Lever rigid at all times.