 Welcome to this episode of Door Hardware Nerds. I'm your host, Mia Merrill. March is National Disability Awareness Month, so with that in mind, we're gonna be talking about accessibility. Today, I'm joined by Tom Tuttle. Tom, welcome. Can you tell us about your role? Absolutely, so get to cover as an architectural consultant for Indiana, parts of Kentucky, as well as central Illinois, for ASA Abloy Door Security Solutions. So, I'd like to say I get to help architects with one of their least favorite parts of the building. All right, yeah. Well, we're very glad that you were able to join us today. And I hear that you're a little bit of an accessibility nerd, so glad to have you on the channel. Thank you. All right, so can you talk to us a little bit about the origination of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1991, 1990? Yeah, so when it came on the scene, I was actually studying human resources management back in the day, so it was this big set of rules and laws that a lot of people didn't know a whole lot about, and there's still quite a bit of misperception where people think it's actually a code when it's not. It can become more of a standard for making buildings accessible. So there's always confusion there. Unfortunately, there could be lawsuits, so addressing these properly upfront really becomes critical. Yeah, and so how did that affect as you transitioned into the hardware industry? Yeah, so when I first got in, there were quite a bit of knobs still being used. There's still a few exceptions for government entities where they may allow the use of knobs, but most of those facilities are moving away from that standard. Where we really struggled as an industry was you can put so much more torque on a lever versus a knob set. So redesigned for spring retention and the ability to hold up under use and abuse was a major step forward for our industry. The nice part is it's made buildings a lot more accessible for folks whether side impaired or in wheelchairs or walkers to make things much easier to use, things that you may not realize, but I think you might've mentioned that there's a standard out there about people dealing with that over their lifetime. Yeah, so I think I've mentioned it on the channel before, but something that it's, since I've heard it, it's bothered me is that at some point during our lives, almost all of us are gonna become partially disabled or accessibility challenged, whether it's through injury or just getting older or permanently disabled from something else. And that's really affected me and changed the way that I've thought about how we access everything in the world. Absolutely, and I've even seen organizations where they challenge their people to say, hey, maybe you spend two hours today in a wheelchair and see what it's like trying to go to the restroom or enter the facility or traverse around between buildings. So it's a good exercise to let people know there are some challenges out there that need to be taken care of on a day-to-day basis. Yeah, all right, so now there has been an updated standard in building code, I think, around operators. Can you explain that? Yeah, so in the newer building codes that are coming up and it'll be a state-by-state or jurisdiction by jurisdiction adoption, there's gonna be a requirement based on the occupancy type and the number of personnel in that facility to have more automatic door operators. So in a sense, that's gonna be a good thing, but it's also gonna challenge us to make sure that we look at, hey, what are the accessible entrances to the facility? How many are there? Code of course is a minimum, so maybe we really ought to go above and beyond that to make things more user-friendly because we don't wanna just rely on code as the end-all be-all. Yeah, that makes sense. And so now levers as well. Some levers are straight, right? And then some have that return that comes back to the door. Does that have anything to do with accessibility? Both, quite frankly, will meet ADA requirements. So that's the good news. However, some jurisdictions, whether by code or by custom, may require the return to the door or others on the lock set may not require it. So it's good to know the local conditions that are required for that area. And then some of it, quite frankly, comes down to aesthetics. You don't wanna have to step out of being able to pinch, twist or grasp that lever to operate it. So again, either one can make it accessible, but we wanna make sure it's done correctly based on that arena. Okay, great. Now, how can one make a better flow if you have an existing building for people entering into your building? Well, the classic approach is to look at security in the facility, right? So we look at areas where people should be allowed in, should have restricted access, maybe there's time zones. Another layer to that would be to look, what's the traffic flow into the facility? So if we're looking at a hospital, for example, maybe we need to address things like, okay, you've got your high energy sliders or automatic door operators to get into the facility. But even looking at areas like maybe a restroom, perhaps you don't need the full bore automatic door operator for the front entry, but maybe using a lower cost option there with touch-free actuators to make it user-friendly. Okay, what would you recommend if I am a building owner and I need to take a first step for increasing accessibility? Probably a first step would be survey some of your local employees to make sure they're able to get into the areas that they'd like to access. Another one you could take a look at, there's some packages put together with door actuators, maybe even touch-less or wave actuators, power supplies and so forth where you can order those in and add them to the opening without breaking the budget. So I would highly recommend folks take a look at those. Okay, any final thoughts you wanna share with us today? Just again, take a look at the overall facility. Don't wait for the yearly inspection to come through like there's joint commission and healthcare or some others, but address them on bite-sized chunks. So you can address them in a more manageable, budget-friendly approach. Wonderful, well, thank you for joining us today. For more information about door operators, I will put a link below. Also, the Good Design Studio is another great resource, so I will also leave a link below for that. If you have questions or comments, please leave them below, make sure you like this video and subscribe to this channel to stay updated on when our new videos come out. Thanks for watching.