ADA Accessibility Inspections
Know what accessibility barriers come with the building before they cause problems.
What It Is
We walk the property the way your customers and tenants do, from the parking stall to the restroom, and document the physical barriers in the way. Each finding is photographed, located, and explained in plain language, so you can hand the report to a contractor and get a number back.
The survey follows CCPIA's published commercial inspection standards for accessibility, with California Building Code requirements referenced in specific areas where the state is stricter than the CCPIA baseline, such as on exterior walkway widths and parking layout.
Why Owners Ask For This
California sees more accessibility litigation than any other state, and barriers are far more common than most owners assume.
Seyfarth Shaw ADA Title III filing data · Disability & Society (2023) · California Senate Judiciary Committee
What We Look At
Six areas, covering the barriers that actually get buildings into trouble.
Parking
Whether you have enough accessible and van spaces, whether they're sized and marked correctly, and whether they're in the right place.
Getting to the Door
The route from parking to the entrance, including walkway width and slope, curb cuts, ramps, and railings.
Entrances
Whether the entrance works for someone using a wheelchair, from door width and thresholds to hardware and how easily the doors can be opened.
Moving Through the Building
Corridors, floor surfaces, obstructions, and elevator access to the floors the public uses.
Restrooms
Room and stall clearances, grab bars, fixture heights, and ease of operation.
Fixtures & Amenities
Drinking fountains and other public fixtures, plus notes and photos on any other barriers we come across.
When You Need It
Barriers come with the building. A buyer inherits them along with the roof and the HVAC and inherits the cost of fixing them. Owners and managers usually add the survey when they're:
Buying or Financing
- Pricing deferred accessibility work before closing
- Negotiating a credit or holdback
- Building a capital reserve that has to survive underwriting
- Taking over a property with unknown history
Owning or Operating
- Planning a remodel or tenant improvement
- Re-tenanting a space for a new use
- Documenting condition before a lease turnover
- Deciding whether the property warrants a full CASp inspection
What You Get
A dedicated accessibility section in your inspection report. Every barrier photographed and located, described without jargon, and grouped so the quick, cheap fixes are easy to tell apart from the ones that need a design professional.
Pair it with a Cost-To-Remedy Report to put dollar figures against the findings. If your lender requires a full ASTM E2018 Property Condition Assessment, the accessibility survey and the cost opinions are already built into that package.
Who Orders This
Any building open to the public carries accessibility obligations.
Property Types
- Retail centers, strip malls, and storefronts
- Restaurants, bars, and food service
- Medical, dental, and professional offices
- Hotels, motels, and lodging
Also Common
- Multifamily and mixed-use with public common areas
- Churches, schools, and community facilities
- Warehouses with an office or public counter
- Municipal and publicly leased facilities
Frequently Asked Questions
Quick answers about accessibility barrier surveys in the Bay Area.
No. This is a visual barrier survey built for due diligence and planning. A CASp inspection is performed by a Certified Access Specialist licensed by the State of California, and it is the only kind of inspection that can qualify a property for the legal protections California grants CASp-inspected sites, such as a stay of proceedings and an early evaluation conference if a claim is filed.
If those protections are what you are after, hire a CASp. If you want to know what barriers exist before you buy, budget, or remodel, this survey may be more cost effective and covers many of the same issues.
We follow CCPIA's published standards for accessibility in commercial property inspections, which are built on the 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design.
Where the California Building Code is stricter than the federal baseline, we apply the California requirement. Exterior walkway widths and parking layout are two such examples. This is not a comprehensive code inspection but we apply the accessibility guidelines of the California Building Code in the specific areas covered by the ComSOP.
This is the single most common misconception we run into. There is no grandfather clause in the ADA. Any facility open to the public carries an ongoing obligation to remove architectural barriers where doing so is readily achievable, regardless of when it was built.
Construction date does matter for which technical standard applies, and altering a space can trigger additional requirements in California, including upgrades to the path of travel serving the altered area once the work passes a cost threshold that the state adjusts each year. What age does not do is exempt a building.
We measure. Slopes are taken with a digital level, widths and heights with a tape, and door hardware is checked for the force and grip it takes to operate.
What we leave out of the report is the jargon. Findings are written so an owner and a contractor can both read them, with the measurement included where the number is key.
The report is a planning document, not a work order. It tells you what is there and roughly what class of fix each item falls into, so you can sequence the work and budget for it.
What is legally required of you depends on your facility, your resources, and whether removing a given barrier is readily achievable. That is a question for an attorney or a CASp, not for an inspection report, and we do not offer opinions on it.
Yes, and that is how most clients order it. It is an add-on to a commercial inspection, so we survey accessibility during the same site visit and deliver it as a dedicated section of the same report.
It is already included in an ASTM E2018 Property Condition Assessment. We can also run it as a standalone survey if that is all you need.
Very little. The survey is entirely visual and non-destructive, nothing is opened or removed, and we work around business hours where we can.
We do need access to public restrooms, entrances, and common corridors, and we need the accessible parking stalls clear long enough to measure them.
It depends on the size of the property, how many buildings and restrooms are involved, the amount of parking, and whether it is paired with another inspection. Bundled with an inspection you are already ordering, it is a modest addition.
For context, the Unruh Act sets statutory damages in California at a $4,000 minimum per offense, before attorney fees, and a single non-compliant parking stall can support a claim. Request a proposal with the property address and we will put a number to it.
One Important Note
This is a visual barrier survey for due diligence and planning. It is not a CASp inspection and does not provide the legal protections California grants to CASp-inspected properties. If that protection is what you need, hire a Certified Access Specialist. If you want a general overview that covers many of the most common issues, our survey is often a more convenient and cost effective choice.
Identify Your Exposure Before It Becomes a Lawsuit
An accessibility survey documents existing barriers for buyers, owners, and managers before a complaint does it for you.