What makes a pool lift ADA compliant?Manufacturers often refer to “ADA-compliant,” “ADA Approved,” “certified” or “verified” pool lifts. What does this mean, and how can you ensure that you are getting a lift that truly meets the ADA requirements for your pool?
To begin with, the ADA does not approve any device designed to provide accessibility to any facility. There is no governmental or outside agency who is licensed to test any products for ADA compliance and designate them as ADA Approved. This wording is misleading and may lead to obtaining a product that may not actually make your facility accessible.
Determining Compliance
In the case of swimming pools, accessibility is a process that involves both the specific pool combined with a means of access (pool lift, etc.). Not every means of access will make every pool accessible as required by the ADA guidelines. For pool lifts, there are specific requirements for the lifts themselves, such as seat width and lifting capacity, but there are also requirements that are unique to each installation that will determine if a particular lift will make that pool accessible. See Table 1 for a brief description of each requirement.
Here are some examples to provide clarification:
1. Pool Lift A meets all the pool lift specific ADA requirements and has an arm reach of 30”. The swimming pool purchasing the lift has a deck to water distance of 15”. The minimum distance that a lift needs to submerge the user into the water is 18”, Pool Lift A does not meet the ADA requirements for this pool because the 15” deck to water distance plus the 18” minimum equals 33”. The arm is not long enough. This pool combined with this lift is not ADA compliant. However, Pool Lift B meets all the pool lift specific ADA requirements and has an arm reach of 35”. This pool lift on this swimming pool would make the pool ADA compliant.
2. A pool lift that meets all of the pool specific requirements is located next to a wall without enough clear deck space adjacent to the lift to meet the clear deck space requirement. Even though the lift itself meets all of the pool specific specifications, this would not be an ADA compliant installation.
Requirement* Pool Specific Pool Lift Specific
Water depth at point of lift entry is no more than 48”. •
When over the deck, the centerline of seat is at least 16” from •
the edge of the pool.
There is 36” of clear deck space to the side parallel with the lift seat. •** •**
Seat is 16”-19” from the deck to the top of the seat surface. •
Seat is at least 16” wide. •
There are footrests that move with the seat. •
Armrests (optional) are removable or fold clear of the seat to allow •
the user to easily load the lift.
The lift is user operable from the deck and water. •
The seat submerges at least 18” into the water. •*** •***
Lifting capacity is at least 300 pounds. •
Compliant, Certified and Verified
When a manufacturer refers to a pool lift as “ADA-compliant,” this can only refer to the pool lift specific requirements as shown in Table 1. Since the configuration of every pool will vary, it is impossible to guarantee that a pool lift will be compliant in every situation, even if it fulfills all of the pool lift specific requirements.
Some manufacturer’s may have a third party verify that their lifts are ADA-compliant, but again, this is only verification of the pool lift specific elements, such as: seat width and height, the presence of a footrest, that the lift is self-operable by the user, and that they lifting capacity is over 300 pounds. Even “third party verified” lifts will not make every single pool ADA-compliant because of variable factors of each individual pool.
Ultimately, the responsibility of ensuring that a pool lift meets the ADA requirements falls on the consumer. Using the information contained in this document will help to make the selection process easier and less confusing.
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