Accessibility inspections to certify compliance to ADA laws are COMPLETELY regulated in Texas. The US DOJ controls the ADA program (www.ada.gov ) and has specified all of the requirements that states must follow to ensure accessibility is met. States may either follow federal regulations and codes or the state can create their own “Model Code” for accessibility that is no less stringent than federal guidelines ( http://www.ada.gov/taman3.html#III-9.0000 ). If a state chooses to create their own model code they must have the code approved by the ADA program administrators. The federal government leaves administration and enforcement of the ADA requirements up to each state governmental agency assigned the duty.
Texas has chosen to create their own model code which is administered by the Texas Department Of Licensing And Regulation. Texas has titled their ADA compliance efforts Architectural Barriers Texas Accessibility Standards (TAS) ( http://www.license.state.tx.us/ab/abtas.htm ).
Among the various laws and requirements (which you are free to research at the TDLR site) is the requirement that any new construction, **alterations or additions **to meet the ADA (Texas TAS) requirements will fall under the control of the TAS rules ( http://www.license.state.tx.us/ab/abtas4.htm#4.1.6 ). These rules do include inspecting the the new construction, alterations or additions for compliance. The actual Texas code for these inspections is:
To become a Registered Accessibility Specialist (RAS) these are the
requirements:
[FONT=Verdana]As you can see you must be certified in these inspections to verify/certify compliance with ADA (Texas TAS) requirements.
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