One of the more overlooked elements of making hotel signs compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is sufficient color contrast. Sufficient color contrast is critical when it comes to making a sign visible and legible to as many as possible, especially since your hotel will likely be visited by guests of all ages. This includes those with disabilities, such as vision impairment, that could impede how they view or interact with signage. According to the CDC, around twelve million people in the United States over the age of 40 are visually impaired, with one million of them being blind. Due to this circumstance, color contrast is needed to make your signs legible to all.
Given that 25.5 million Americans over the age of 5 have various travel-limiting disabilities, accessible signage at your hotel is one way to make the trip worth their while. The biggest hurdle with this is that the signage industry maintains a sense of confusion over what the 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design (SfAD) actually require. Therefore, it’s important to compare and contrast the old and new SfAD, offering a more concise understanding of what works best to make your hotel more accessible and accommodating.
Is Signage Color Contrast Required by the ADA?
The ADA was signed into law in 1990, with the first edition of the SfAD adopted shortly thereafter. This 1991 edition was fairly lenient when it came to the contrast issue. For instance, the contrast ratio calculation outlined in the 1991 Standards stood as a recommendation, not a mandate. Besides a non-glare finish, characters were merely required to contrast with a light background on dark background or vice versa. Consequently, the discretionary 70% minimum contrast rating became the default method of judging whether an interior sign offered enough contrast to legally be accessible.
The current SfAD does away with the previous version’s attached appendix that offered guidance on sufficient contrast. Even though the 2010 SfAD is overall a much better version, now the language only states, “Characters and their background shall have a non-glare finish. Characters shall contrast with their background with either light characters on a dark background or dark characters on a light background,” with no advice on how to achieve the proper contrast. Without the proper criterion, the concept of light-on-dark or dark-on-light is hard to quantify. As vague as this language is, one way to apply this information is to read the rule in its strictest form, which means to utilize the most opposing colors within your design scheme.
How to Ensure Color Contrast for Your Hotel Signs
While this may leave you with fewer color options, taking this approach will certainly ensure that you adhere to the requirements. Furthermore, consider applying a sort of “balancing test” to the design by selecting light and dark colors, calculating the contrast percentage, comparing it against grayscale, and choosing the scheme with the highest contrast factor. The 2010 SfAD advisory opinion suggests “characters contrast as much as possible with their background.” A 70% contrast factor should stand as the minimum threshold, and getting at least this level of contrast is a matter of the law. As several other factors will influence this calculation, using multiple assessments is the best practice for your hotel.
If you’re still worried about keeping your signs ADA-compliant and perfectly contrasted, HOTELSIGNS.com is here to help. When you customize and order signs through us, our website will automatically filter your color options upon choosing one color. This guarantees that your signs’ background colors and text colors are perfectly balanced. For this and any other signage needs, shop at HOTELSIGNS.com today.