A convenient office helps all staff members get to their desks, read the screen, join the meeting, and exit the building quickly in an emergency. Most changes are minor, and many cost nothing at all. The steps below outline the layout, furniture, lighting, sound, technology, and routines that ensure improvements, and include measurements you can check against your own space this week.
Start with the People in the Room
Before you buy anything, talk to your staff. Ask them what slows them down, what hurts at the end of the day, and what they do quietly to get around it. Many disabilities can not be immediately apparent. So, chronic pain, low vision, hearing loss, ADHD, and migraine conditions will all impact working ability, but none will be apparent on a walk-through of the office.
Simplify the process and keep requests confidential. One named contact, a short form, and a response within a couple of days will yield more honest responses than an open-door policy. In general, it is not that expensive either. The Job Accommodation Network (JAN), which has surveyed employers for many years, estimates that about half of the accommodations provided in the workplace are free of charge and that the average cost of the remaining accommodations is a few hundred dollars.
Plan the Layout Around Movement
Paths, Doors, and Turning Space
Walk your office as if you were using a wheelchair or pushing a loaded cart. The 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design require accessible routes with a minimum width of 36 inches, doorways that must be at least 32 inches wide, and a 60-inch clear circle of open floor at all points where a wheelchair user must be able to turn around. In older buildings where corridors can’t be widened, a narrower, folding portable electric wheelchair for office use can be easier to steer between desks and stow under a workstation. Over time, these spaces can accumulate spare chairs, recycling bins, and printers; check them periodically.
Doors require closer attention. Round knobs may be difficult to hold if you have arthritis or poor hand strength, and lever handles can be opened with an elbow or a closed fist. Interior doors should not require more than 5 lbs of force. Facilities staff can typically adjust the closer distance in a few minutes if more is needed.
Desks, Chairs, and Reach
When desks are fixed, you have to work with the furniture. Height-adjustable desks work the other way around. According to ADA standards, accessible work surfaces must be between 28 and 34 inches above the floor and have a minimum knee clearance of 30 inches by 27 inches. An electric sit-stand desk meets all those requirements and can also support workers with back pain or circulation issues.
Place frequently used items in easy-to-reach locations. A seated individual’s height is approximately 15 to 48 inches off the ground. There are a few simple changes to make:
- Place most shared supplies from top shelves to waist-height cabinets
- Install light switches, thermostats, and badge readers at a maximum height of 48 inches
- Select chairs that allow for seat height, armrest and lumbar adjustment
- Provide monitor arms to allow the screen to be raised, lowered, or angled
Control Light and Sound
Inadequate lighting causes eye strain for everyone, and for people with low vision, it can be a real obstacle. About 500 lux at the desk (designed by the European standard EN 12464-1) is recommended for general office tasks. Best lighting: overhead lights for the room and a separate desk lamp that each individual can dim and move.
Most complaints are of glare. Install monitors perpendicular to windows, install blinds that can be opened and closed throughout the day, and replace the tubes that flicker immediately. Some workers suffer from headaches and migraines as a result of flicker, and in rare cases flicker can affect persons with photosensitive epilepsy.
Open offices can be very challenging for people who are hard of hearing, autistic, or easily distracted. It’s difficult to listen to speech and harder to concentrate with background noise. Carpet, acoustic panels, and fabric partitions absorb those sounds and are much more affordable than new walls.
Give people somewhere to go. Whether you rent a quiet room, provide a few enclosed phone booths, or simply let employees wear noise-canceling headphones, it can make the difference between a productive afternoon and an afternoon gone. In meeting rooms, use a hearing loop or good table microphone for people with hearing aids.
Make Digital Work Accessible
Much of your team’s work happens on a screen, so digital access is as important as physical access. Windows, macOS, and most phones already have voice control, high-contrast modes, magnifiers, and screen readers like Narrator and VoiceOver. Many workers don’t know about these tools. Thirty minutes of time spent demonstrating them is well worth it!
Some staff will need to use specific software. The most popular screen readers for Windows are JAWS and NVDA, with the latter being free. Test a new internal system using only a keyboard and a screen reader before implementing it. If you can’t do something as a basic task, some of your colleagues can’t either.
Documents must be accessible to all readers. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) specify a minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1 for body text, and 4.5:1 is a good guideline for slides and PDFs. There are some habits that make a world of difference:
- Use heading styles or bold text to structure
- Provide alternative text (alt text) for charts and images
- Use link text that describes where the link will go instead of “Click here”
- Use a sans serif font that is at least 12 points
Meetings require the same attention. Enable live captions to turn on automatically in Microsoft Teams, Zoom, or Google Meet instead of relying on another person to turn them on. Provide a copy of the agenda and slides to participants at least one day ahead of time for use with screen readers or to allow those who need more time to prepare.
Build Accessibility Into Your Routines
Plans are usually made for individuals who can use stairs. Anyone who may need assistance evacuating should have a personal evacuation plan detailing who will help them, where they will go, and where they will wait. If an employee working alone is hearing impaired, the alarm should be both visual and audible (flashing strobes).
When no one takes responsibility for accessibility work, it ceases. Have one person review the office each time it is reviewed, compare new purchases to your standards, and follow up on accommodation requests. Also on that list: flexible schedules and remote work, since for some workers the most beneficial adjustment is being able to work from home when they’re feeling under the weather.
Conclusion
You don’t need a big budget or to be in the middle of a remodel to make real progress. Measure doors and desks, adjust lighting, enable captioning, and survey staff about what is holding them back. Solve the easy problems first, then write down your changes and revisit the list in six months. Every adjustment will make the office more accessible for the users who already use it and for the next users you hire.
