NOV 4 1992

The Honorable Thomas J. Bliley, Jr.

U. S. House of Representatives
2241 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Congressman Bliley:

This letter responds to your inquiry on behalf of Dr. John

R. Partridge, regarding the regulatory requirements of the
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for accessible rest rooms
in professional offices open to the public.

The ADA authorizes the Department of Justice to provide

technical assistance to individuals and entities with rights or
obligations under the Act. This letter provides informal
guidance to assist your constituent in understanding the ADA
accessibility standards. However, this technical assistance does
not constitute a legal interpretation of the statute and it is
not binding on the Department.

The ADA Accessibility Guidelines (which apply to new

construction such as the facility planned by Dr. Partridge) do
not specify the number of rest rooms required in any type of
building or facility. Any number of rest rooms beyond what may
be required by local building codes or plumbing codes is
determined entirely at the discretion of the owner. Section
4.1.3 (11) of the Guidelines (page 35614 of the enclosed
regulation) stipulates accessibility requirements for new
construction of toilet rooms as follows:

If toilet rooms are provided, then each public and

common use toilet room shall comply with 4.22. Other
toilet rooms provided for the use of occupants of
specific spaces (i.e., a private toilet room for the
occupant of a private office) shall be adaptable.

cc: Records; Chrono; Wodatch; Harland; McDowney; FOIA; MAF.

:udd:mercado:congresional.letters:harland.bliley.partridge

01-01698​
-2-
Rest rooms associated with examination rooms, laboratory
facilities, and staff support areas would be considered common
use toilet rooms. All such rest rooms must be fully accessible.
A doctor's private rest room, on the other hand, need only be
adaptable. In other words, it must be designed to satisfy all
space requirements but need not initially have grab bars or knee
space below the lavatory, as long as such features can be added
or modified without much difficulty when the need arises.

The technical provisions for accessibility of individual

elements such as doors or turning spaces are referenced in S4.22.
Accessibility requirements do require some increase in floor area
within a single-user rest room but, through careful and
knowledgeable planning of a new building, there is often no
increase in the overall size, or cost, of the facility.

Please feel free to encourage your constituents to contact

the Public Access Section any time they have questions or need
information. The Department maintains a telephone information
line to provide technical assistance regarding the rights and
obligations of individuals, businesses, agencies, and others
covered or protected by the ADA. This technical assistance is
available by calling 202-514-0301 (voice) or 202-514-0383 (TDD)
between 1:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday.

I hope the information we have provided is helpful to you

and your constituent.

Sincerely,

John R. Dunne
Assistant Attorney General
Civil Rights Division

Enclosure
01-01699​
Congress of the United States
House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515-4603
September 10, 1992
Mr. John Wodatch
Director
Office of Americans With Disabilities Act
Department of Justice
P.O. Box 66738
Washington, D.C. 20036-9998
Dear Mr. Wodatch:

I am writing you on behalf of my constituent, Dr. John R.

Partridge, in regards to the problems he has encountered in
complying with the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA). Dr.
Partridge is in the midst of planning a new health care facility
and has run into, what we both believe to be, overly extensive and
very costly compliance requirements.

The health facility planned will house seventeen specialists,

dividing them into several groups, each of which will occupy suite-
like areas boasting seventeen or eighteen rest rooms. Such a set
up would bring the total number of rest rooms to approximately
sixty.
Yet, according to the ADA, each of these rest rooms,
regardless of how close together they are located or how the
facility is designed as to their accessibility to disabled people,
is required to comply to ADA standards. As you know, these
standards include a sixty inch wheelchair turning area or a t-
shaped space, and an eighteen inch distance from the door to the
corner. The loss of rent as well as the construction costs of such
requirements will result in at least $500,000 in aggregate
additional expense in the first decade of occupancy alone. These
costs will be passed along to the consumer, and tacked onto the
already high costs of medical care.

In my mind, there must be a more economical way in which to

make sure that facilities are accessible to disabled individuals,
while keeping in mind the resources of small businesses. Perhaps
by concentrating on the location and the arrangement of the

01-01700​
Mr. John Wodatch
September 10, 1992
Page 2

bathrooms, as opposed to merely mandating that all bathrooms

comply, a compromise can be reached.

Enclosed is a copy of Dr. Partridge's letter for your

comments. As building will begin shortly, time is an important
factor in this situation.

I thank you in advance for your time, and look forward to the
benefit of your views.

With kindest regards, I am

Sincerely,

Thomas J. Bliley, Jr.

Member of Congress
TJBj/elb
01-01701​
CHIPPENHAM OB-GYN ASSOCIATES, LTD.
7151 JAHNKE ROAD
RICHMOND, VIRGINIA 23225
804-272-5808
1447 JOHNSTON WILLIS DRIVE
RICHMOND, VIRGINIA 23235
804-323-3525

JOHN R. PARTRIDGE, M.D., F.A.C.O.G. L. DANIEL CROOKS, JR., M.D.

(1942-1991)
DAVID C. REUTINGER, M.D., F.A.C.O.G.
WARREN A. BROOCKER, M.D., F.A.C.O.G. MARK S. KEGEL, M.D.
J. HARRY ELLEN, JR., M.D., F.A.C.O.G. INGRID A. PROSSER, M.D.

August 28, 1992

The Honorable Thomas J. Bliley, Jr.

U.S. House of Representatives
2241 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

Re: Americans With Disability Act

Dear Congressman Bliley:

I am writing to you to seek urgent assistance from your

staff in obtaining from the appropriate administrative agencies
relief from certain provisions of the Americans With Disability
Act, Title III from the Federal Register dated July 26, 1991,
volume 56, number 144, section 4.22 regarding restrooms in
facilities open to the public including professional offices.

I am the senior partner of a six physician obstetrical

practice that is seeking to build a new office at the new
hospital facilities being constructed at Johnston-Willis Hospital
in Bon Air, VA. The physicians listed below are likewise heads
of their respective practices and together we comprise a group of
seventeen specialists in our field, all of whom are anticipating
occupying new offices in the Atrium Building. Altogether, we
render medical care for thousands of your constituents yearly;
and the decisions we make affect numerous procedures, tests, and
hospitalizations totalling many millions of dollars a year in
medical care within your district.

In designing our new offices, we have run up against what we

feel to be totally unreasonable and unrealistic bureaucratic
requirements for compliance under the above act. Specifically,
in the design of restrooms for our office, we are being told that
each restroom in the facility must have a five foot turning
radius inside and the door must be eighteen inches from the
corner of the room. In the case of each bathroom so affected,
the requirement for additional square footage is considerable
and, indeed, almost doubles the size of the restroom. This may
be of relatively minor consequence in a fast food restaurant with
one or two restrooms, but is of major consequence in a medical
office in which there are 17 or 18 restrooms per group of

01-01702​
The Honorable Thomas J. Bliley, Jr.
August 28, 1992
Page Two

doctors. The total number of restrooms that will be constructed

for the groups to whom I have referred will be in the range of
60. When one considers the additional construction costs of this
extra square footage and the additional yearly rent that each of
the groups will pay for extraneous bathroom space, the total tab
faced at this one facility just for obstetrics becomes rather
staggering. We will face at least $500,000 in aggregate
additional expense that we would not have faced under former
design requirements, just in the first decade of occupancy. It
is illogical to suppose that we will not have to pass these costs
on to our patients, who are your constituents. At a time when
health costs are a concern to all Americans, including their
congressmen, such a waste of expense seems unconscionable.

What we would propose as a remedy under this act would be to

give an exemption to bathrooms totally over a certain number per
square foot of office space. For example, in a one practice
office of 6,000 square feet, one might reasonably argue that one
bathroom equipped and suitably scaled for handicapped for each
physician that would be actively seeing patients in the office at
any one time would suffice. In our case for my practice, that
would mean three or perhaps four such bathrooms for the total
office. We would thus save on the expense of the other 14
bathrooms without impairing access of disabled individuals to
medical care at all. The cost savings would obviously be passed
on to the consumer.

Time is of the essence if any relief is to be obtained for

our facility since construction is under rapid progress and plans
are being finalized. If we do not have relief within the next 60
days, we will be forced to go ahead with the more stringent
provisions, but, again, this will significantly impact on health
care costs in your district.

Please take action to help us in our plight.

Sincerely,

John R. Partridge, M.D.

JRP/sos
cc: Erika M. Blanton, M.D.
Adam J. Fiedler, M.D.
Marijan Gospodnetic, M.D.
01-01703