September 21, 1993 Jim Bethea Slip-Free Surfaces P.O. Box 15344 Myrtle Beach, SC 29587 Department Of Justice Office Of The Americans With Disabilities Act Civil Rights Division Washington, DC 20530 Dear Sirs: I am writing in hopes of getting some answers for some very puzzling questions concerning the ADA Title III Act. My company is in the business of applying non-skid flooring surfaces. We were under the impression that the new ADA laws were requiring all public accommodations to provide a firm, stable, and non-skid surfacing on the path of travel areas of their flooring. We also were under the impression that there were fines of up to $50,000 for persons or businesses that failed to comply with these laws. (b)(7)(c) I contacted XX at the University of West Virginia back in January and she confirmed that businesses must comply with this law and provide a coefficient of friction of at least .6 for level and .8 for ramp surfaces. I was just reading a copy of "ACCESS AMERICA" (ref. pg. 9 - question #10) stating that there is no specification for a min= imum of slip-resistance. That the .6 is just a recommendation, like all others in the 4.5.1 appendix. This is very confusing to our company. Are the businesses required to have any certain level of coefficient of friction? Are they subject to any fines for not providing this level? If these businesses are not required to maintain the .6 level how would you know if they are in violation of not providing a stable, firm, and slip-resistant floor surface? Can you suggest any type of notification that we might use to help prompt businesses to take any of these actions? We have been telling businesses that they should (under the ADA TITLE III ACT) provide a non-skid surface for their customers. Have we been doing wrong by suggesting this information? The majority of the persons or businesses that we have made personal contact with, indicate that they are not interested in doing anything in regards to providing a slip-resistant flooring. We have heard comments such as (e.g. "we are not going to do any- thing about our floors until they make me" ---- We are going to wait and see if anything comes from these laws" ---- We are going to wait and see if they are going to enforce these laws") 01-02709 And one nursing home administrator stated ("if the ADA doesn't come around any more often than the O.S.H.A. does we probably won't ever need to anyway'). So you can see were it is very frustrating to try to get people to take or make any precaution- ary actions in regards to the ADA laws without some more clar- ifying laws or rules. Any help that you could give us would be greatly appreciated. Look forward to hearing from you soon. Thanks, Jim Bethea/pres 01-02710