About Environmental Graphics

ADA signs are required for every permanent room or space in a building. ADA-compliant signs serve three primary purposes:

1. To identify permanent interior office rooms and spaces.
2. To provide direction to or information about permanent interior building spaces.
3. To identify, direct to, or information about accessible features via the International Symbol of Accessibility (ISA).

ADA signs have specific content and install location requirements. Temporary and changeable signs, including menus and directories, are not required to meet ADA sign compliance. Generally, ADA signs are required at every doorway. More specifically, every permanent room or space in U.S. public buildings should be marked with an identifying ADA sign.

While it is common for ADA office signs to have a blue background this is not required. The ADA states that sign backgrounds and raised elements (text, braille, and pictograms) should be contrasting. ADA signs should have a light background and dark raised elements or a dark background and light raised elements.

ADA sign height must be installed between 48 and 60 inches measured to the baseline of the top line of the raised lettering.

To achieve compliance, a larger font is required on all ADA signage. However, it's important to highlight that the size of the font should be between 5/8 and 2 inches.

Braille shall be positioned below the corresponding text. Braille shall be separated 3/8 inch (9.5 mm) minimum from any other tactile characters and 3/8 inch (9.5 mm) minimum from raised borders and decorative elements.

Below are some Popular ADA Compliant Fonts

Fonts must be san serif

• Arial
• AvantGarde MD BT
• Avenir LT Std
• Franklin Gothic
• Frutiger LT
• Futura Std
• Futura MdCn BT
• Myriad Pro