Ontario, Calif. — In addition to the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and equivalent regulations in Canada, Authorities Having Jurisdiction throughout North America are increasingly requiring that bathroom grab bars installed in their community be certified as satisfying the requirements of the ASTM F446 and CAN/B651 standards for the United States and Canada, respectively.
IAPMO R&T, North America’s premier third-party certification body for plumbing and mechanical products, is prepared to assist manufacturers who choose to distinguish their grab bars from competitors by clearly demonstrating compliance to both the ADA (and equivalent regulations in Canada) and the specific standards governing grab bars.
Enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1990, the ADA includes provisions concerning public accommodations and commercial facilities in the Americans With Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines (ADAAG). Products mandated by the ADA are further governed by their own standards, to which more and more Authorities Having Jurisdiction are requiring certification.
Grab bars lacking third-party certification cannot be assured of acceptance within desired jurisdictions and could be rejected in favor of competitors’ models that demonstrate compliance through certification.
One of the best ways for manufacturers to identify their products as compliant with the laws and standards accommodating disabled persons in the United States or Canada is to list their products with a qualified third-party certification body such as IAPMO R&T, which is accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the Standards Council of Canada (SCC) as a provider of such certification services.
For more information on having products listed, contact Brenda Madonna (brenda.madonna@iapmort.org) at (877) 4-UPC-MARK, or direct your Web browser to www.iapmort.org.
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