I’m currently on the road, and I found this example of a sliding door in my travels.  I can’t say for sure whether this door in my hotel room needs to meet the accessibility standards, but it’s a good illustration of a door that doesn’t comply with the accessibility requirements for sliding door hardware.  Use your imagination.  🙂

The accessibility standards require sliding doors to have operating hardware that is exposed and usable from both sides when the door is in the fully open position.  The codes and standards also require hardware that is operable without tight grasping, pinching, or twisting of the wrist.  Here’s the applicable section from the ADA Standards for Accessible Design:

404.2.7 Door and Gate Hardware. Handles, pulls, latches, locks, and other operable parts on doors
and gates shall comply with 309.4. Operable parts of such hardware shall be 34 inches (865 mm)
minimum and 48 inches (1220 mm) maximum above the finish floor or ground. Where sliding doors
are in the fully open position, operating hardware shall be exposed and usable from both sides.

Here’s the door, so you can get a visual:

There is a flush pull on the inside, and this is how it looks with the door fully closed.  The accessibility standards are not specific about flush pulls, but I was able to operate this door without tight grasping, pinching, or twisting of the wrist.  Would you consider this accessible?

Here’s where the problem arises, IF the door is required to meet the accessibility standards (remember, use your imagination).  When the door is left slightly open, the flush pull is exposed and usable, but once the door is fully open, the flush pull disappears.

Even if the door is not required to comply with the accessibility standards, it’s a little awkward to close the door from the inside, as there is no visible hardware.  I’d like to see the surface pulls on both sides of the door, with a stop to prevent the door from opening so far that the pull hits the jamb.  WWYD?

You need to login or register to bookmark/favorite this content.