Syn­the­sis of Style and Acces­si­bil­i­ty: Dual Signs Rev­o­lu­tion­izes ADA Signage

ADA’s fed­er­al leg­is­la­tion helps peo­ple of all abil­i­ties have access, includ­ing clear inter­pre­ta­tion of essen­tial signs. These laws also impose strict rules around the fonts, size, col­or and more con­sid­er­a­tions in sign design: 

• Visu­al and tac­tile char­ac­ters are required. 
• The char­ac­ters must be raised to a cer­tain depth. 
• Braille char­ac­ters must be placed direct­ly below the cor­re­spond­ing text. 
• Char­ac­ters must visu­al­ly con­trast with their background. 
• Nei­ther the char­ac­ters nor the back­ground can have any sur­face glare. 

There are even spe­cif­ic rules for where an ADA-com­pli­ant sign can be placed on a wall. Busi­ness­es that do not com­ply with ADA guide­lines can face legal and finan­cial penal­ties, so it’s cru­cial that build­ing sig­nage is care­ful­ly designed and fab­ri­cat­ed with ADA guide­lines in mind.

This used to mean per­ma­nent room sig­nage was large­ly standard…and a lit­tle bor­ing. Whether you were in a hos­pi­tal or hotel, room num­bers and oth­er signs most­ly looked the same, and noth­ing stood out. 

Dual signs change all that, putting the pri­ma­ry focus back on creativity.

Dual signs essen­tial­ly break a sign into two parts: What you see or notice and what a sight-impaired per­son can read.

• The visu­al part of the sign allows for more cre­ativ­i­ty — dec­o­ra­tive fonts, bright col­ors, and upper- and low­er­case let­ters are all acceptable.
• The oth­er part of the sign is the ADA-com­pli­ant por­tion, with raised let­ters and Braille included.

The dual sign approach meets ADA guide­lines because the raised let­ters and Braille are still includ­ed. That por­tion of the sign could even be designed to blend in with a back­ground col­or or pat­tern to enhance your sign’s visu­al appeal further.

After all, fire route signs, room num­bers, and stair­way mark­ers are meant to be seen. Using col­ors, pat­terns, and tex­tures can draw more atten­tion to these crit­i­cal signs.

When you choose dual sig­nage for your build­ing, you can ensure your cre­ative vision will come through in every aspect of its design. While per­ma­nent room sig­nage might seem like a small piece of the puz­zle, when you see all these pieces togeth­er in one place, you see just how far they go in cre­at­ing an expe­ri­ence for every per­son who vis­its your building.

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