Taking Accessibility Into Account During Winter

Taking Accessibility into Account During Winter

Imagine this:  It’s Winter.  Snow has fallen.  The parking lot of the business has been plowed.  A person pulls into the parking lot and parks in the accessible space.  The person goes to get out of the vehicle and encounters a problem.  It seems all of the plowed snow has been piled up in the access aisle, that striped space beside the accessible parking space.  As a result, they cannot exit their vehicle.   This happens more than you may know and may rob your business of potential customers. 

The access aisle is a necessary part of the accessible parking space.  Access aisles are reserved, by law, for the exclusive use of persons who require extra space to deploy a mobility device, lift, or ramp in order to enter or exit a vehicle.  Access aisles have specific required measurements for this purpose.  Snow piles resulting from snow being removed from the rest of the parking lot that are allowed to accumulate in an access aisle render that access aisle useless.  Thus a snow filled access aisle makes the parking space inaccessible.  When removing snow from your parking lot please keep accessibility in mind.  Providing access communicates to people “you are a valued customer”.    If we want to communicate to all customers that they are valued then accessibility does not only have to be provided but also maintained.

Provided by Southeastern Ohio Center for Independent Living

740-689-1494