Accessible parking is one of the few things on your property that is governed by a specific federal standard, easy for anyone to photograph from the parking lot, and a frequent target of accessibility complaints and lawsuits. It is also one of the most commonly botched details on commercial lots, usually not out of bad intent but because the requirements are precise and easy to get slightly wrong: an access aisle a few inches too narrow, a sign mounted too low, a van space without the right marking, or the wrong number of accessible stalls for the lot's size.
This guide breaks down what the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) actually requires for parking lot striping, written for Atlanta-area property owners, HOA boards, and facility managers rather than for engineers. It is educational, not legal advice, for a definitive compliance determination on your specific property, consult the official ADA Standards and a qualified professional. But it will give you a clear, practical picture of what compliant accessible parking looks like and how to get your lot there. Biran Paving Group is a licensed and insured, owner-led asphalt contractor in Dunwoody with 15+ years of experience and 500+ projects completed across Metro Atlanta, and accessible layout is part of every commercial lot we stripe.
Why ADA parking compliance matters in Atlanta
For commercial properties, ADA-compliant accessible parking is not optional. It is a legal requirement under federal law, and Georgia's accessibility code aligns with the federal 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design. Beyond the legal obligation, there are real, practical reasons every property owner should care:
- Liability and litigation. Accessibility lawsuits and complaints are a distinct and growing category of risk. Non-compliant parking, the wrong number of spaces, missing access aisles, faded markings, improper signage, is among the easiest violations to spot and document.
- Usability. Accessible parking makes your property genuinely usable for people with disabilities, older customers, and anyone with limited mobility. That is good for tenants and good for business.
- Professionalism. A correctly laid out, freshly striped lot signals a property that is managed with care.
The good news: compliant striping is one of the least expensive forms of risk reduction you can buy. Re-striping a lot to meet code costs a fraction of a single accessibility claim.
How many accessible spaces does your lot need?
The required number of accessible spaces scales with the total number of spaces in the lot, set out in Table 208.2 of the 2010 ADA Standards. The principle to remember: the bigger the lot, the more accessible spaces, but the requirement does not grow one-for-one, it steps up in bands.
Here is the framework property owners should understand:
- 1 to 25 total spaces: at least 1 accessible space
- 26 to 50 total spaces: at least 2
- 51 to 75 total spaces: at least 3
- 76 to 100 total spaces: at least 4
The count continues to step up from there as the lot grows into the hundreds, and very large lots follow a percentage-based calculation. The key point for an owner is that even a small lot of just a few spaces still requires at least one accessible space, there is no minimum size below which the requirement disappears. If you are restriping or your space count has changed, the number of accessible stalls should be recalculated against the total.
Van-accessible spaces: the 1-in-6 rule
Not all accessible spaces are the same. A portion must be van-accessible to accommodate wheelchair lifts and ramps that deploy from the side of a vehicle.
Under the 2010 Standards, at least one of every six accessible spaces, or fraction of six, must be van-accessible. This was a change from the older 1991 standard, which required one in every eight, so lots striped under the old rule may now be short on van spaces. Practically, this means even a lot with a single accessible space must make that space van-accessible.
Van-accessible spaces are marked with an additional 'van accessible' designation on the sign and are paired with a wider access aisle (see below).
Stall and access-aisle dimensions
The dimensions are where a lot is most often technically non-compliant, because the differences are measured in inches and disappear under a coat of faded paint. The 2010 Standards (Section 502) set out the following:
- Standard accessible car space: a minimum 96-inch (8-foot) wide stall, served by an access aisle at least 60 inches (5 feet) wide.
- Van-accessible space: the same 96-inch-wide stall but served by a wider access aisle of at least 96 inches (8 feet). (An alternative design allows a wider 132-inch van stall with a 60-inch aisle; the side-by-side approach with the 96-inch aisle is the more common layout.)
- The access aisle is not optional or decorative. It is the marked, striped space beside the stall that gives a person room to deploy a ramp or lift and transfer to a wheelchair. It must be marked so it is clearly not a parking space, and two accessible spaces are permitted to share one access aisle.
- Level surface. Accessible spaces and their access aisles must be on relatively level ground, with limited slope in all directions, so a wheelchair does not roll and a lift can deploy safely. This is one reason proper grading during paving matters for compliance, not just drainage.
- Connected to an accessible route. The access aisle must connect to an accessible route to the building entrance, so a person never has to travel behind parked cars.
Because these are inch-level requirements, getting them right depends on accurate layout and measurement during striping, not eyeballing. This is exactly the kind of work that should be done by a contractor who does compliant commercial striping regularly.
Signage and pavement markings
Compliant accessible parking is identified two ways: on the pavement and on a sign.
- The International Symbol of Accessibility (ISA), the familiar wheelchair symbol, painted on the surface of each accessible stall.
- A vertical sign displaying the ISA for each accessible space, mounted so the bottom of the sign is at least 60 inches above the ground, high enough to remain visible even when a vehicle is parked in front of it.
- The 'Van Accessible' designation added to the sign at each van space.
- Access aisle markings, clearly striping the aisle so it reads as a no-parking zone, not an open space. Hatched striping is the common approach.
Georgia and many local jurisdictions also have their own signage details, including fine-amount language on some signs, so local requirements should be confirmed for your specific property.
Where Atlanta property owners most often fall out of compliance
From striping commercial lots across Metro Atlanta, the same handful of issues come up again and again:
- Faded markings. Striping and the ISA symbol wear away over years of traffic and sun. A barely visible symbol or a ghost access aisle is effectively non-compliant even if the layout was once correct.
- Missing or undersized access aisles. Especially on older lots, where an accessible stall exists but the adjacent aisle is too narrow or was never properly marked.
- Too few van spaces. Lots striped under the old 1-in-8 rule that were never updated to the current 1-in-6 standard.
- Wrong number of accessible spaces after a change. Re-striping a lot to add regular spaces without recalculating how many accessible spaces the new total requires.
- Signs mounted too low or knocked down and never replaced, leaving spaces that are no longer properly identified.
- Slope and route problems where an accessible space drains or grades in a way that makes it non-compliant, or where the route to the entrance forces travel behind parked cars.
The encouraging part: most of these are inexpensive to correct with a proper re-stripe, and several can be folded into routine maintenance.
A representative scenario: re-striping an older office lot
Here is a generic, representative example, not a specific client. Picture an older office property in the Atlanta suburbs whose parking lot was last striped years ago. The asphalt is sound, but the white lines have faded, the wheelchair symbols are ghosts, the single accessible space has no clearly marked access aisle, and there is no van-accessible space at all. The lot now has more total spaces than it did originally because a section was reconfigured.
The fix is straightforward and inexpensive relative to the risk it removes: recalculate the required number of accessible spaces against the new total, lay out compliant stalls and access aisles with correct dimensions, designate the required van-accessible space with the wider aisle, repaint the ISA symbols, mark the aisles as no-parking zones, and confirm the signage is present and mounted at the correct height. The lot goes from a documentable accessibility exposure to a compliant, professional, fully usable surface in a single project. That is the whole case for treating accessible striping as planned maintenance rather than waiting for a complaint.
How striping fits into the rest of your pavement
Accessible striping rarely stands alone. When we re-stripe a lot, we lay it out to meet code while maximizing your usable parking, and we handle the full range of markings, accessible stalls, fire lanes, and directional arrows, through our line striping and pavement markings service.
Striping is also the natural finishing step after other work. After sealcoating, fresh striping goes onto a clean black surface and looks its best. After pothole repair and patching or an asphalt overlay, the lot is re-striped to restore the layout. And for any new commercial parking lot, a compliant, ADA-aware layout is built in from the start, with grading that supports level accessible spaces. For property managers who would rather not track all of this, an asphalt maintenance program keeps striping legible and compliant on a planned cycle.
Get a compliant layout from a local contractor
If you own or manage a commercial property anywhere in Metro Atlanta and you are not certain your accessible parking meets the current standard, the simplest next step is to have it looked at. A compliant re-stripe is one of the lowest-cost, highest-value improvements you can make to a commercial lot, and it removes one of the easiest violations for anyone to spot.
Biran Paving Group is owner-led by Ben Biran, based at 2494 Jett Ferry Rd, Suite 270 in Dunwoody, licensed and insured with a COI available on request, and rated 5.0 from 5 reviews. Call (678) 332-8941 for a free assessment of your parking lot striping and accessible layout. Office hours are Monday through Friday, 9:30am to 6:30pm.
*This article is general information for property owners and is not legal advice. Requirements can vary by property and jurisdiction, confirm your specific obligations against the official ADA Standards and, where appropriate, a qualified professional.*