FLORIDA INSTITUTE OF
Issue: Vertical accessibility to all rows of bleachers in a swimming facility.
Analysis: The applicant is requesting a waive4r from providing vertical accessibility to the upper two rows of portable bleachers. The project is a new, $2,000,000 swimming and diving facility with a recreational pool, locker rooms, toilets, lifeguard office and pool deck. The bleachers are erected when competitive swimming and diving events take place, and according to the applicant, are designed to permit wheelchair users to assimilate into the seating located at the pool deck level. Companion seating must also be incorporated into the overall seating design.
Project Progress:
The project is under construction.
Items to be Waived:
Ve4rtical accessibility to all rows of seats, as re4qirede
by Section 553.509,
553.509 Vertical accessibility. Nothing in Sections 553.501-553.513 or the guidelines shall be construed to relieve the owner of any building, structure or facility governed by those sections from the duty to provide vertical accessibility to all levels above and below the occupiable grade level regardless of whether the guidelines require an elevator to be installed in such building, structure or facility, except for:
(1) Elevator pits, elevator penthouses, mechanical rooms, piping or equipment catwalks and automobile lubrication and maintenance pits and platforms;
(2) Unoccupiable spaces, such as rooms, enclosed spaces and storage spaces that are not designed for human occupancy, for public accommodations or for work areas; and
(3) Occupiable spaces and rooms that are not open to the public and that house no more than five persons, including, but not limited to equipment control rooms and projection booths.
Waiver Criteria: There is no specific guidance for a waiver of this requirement in the code. The Commission’s current rule, authorized in Section 553.512, Florida Statutes, provides criteria for granting waivers and allows consideration of unnecessary or extreme hardship to the applicant if the specific requirements were imposed.