| California (Title 24) Braille
California has its own, unique standard for Braille. Dots within cells must be 1/10 inch apart, measured from the centers. The cells are 2/10 or 3/10 inch apart, depending on how you measure. If you measure from the second column of dots to the first column in the next adjacent cell in the same word, it is 2/10 inch. If you measure from dot to corresponding dot, it is 3/10 inch. Dots must be 1/40 (0.025) inch high. Dots must be rounded or domed, be in a horizontal format, and be located below the corresponding text. The space between the raised text and the braille must be between 3/8 inch minimum and 1/2 inch, maximum.
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Geometric Door Signs
California requires, in addition to Braille and raised character restroom identification signs installed adjacent to the doors, large geometric signs on the doors of restrooms. A 12 inch diameter circle stands for the women's or girl's restroom. A 12 inch equilateral triangle stands for the men's or boy's restroom. A triangle placed on top of and within a 12 inch diameter circle stands for a unisex restroom. All geometric symbols must be 1/4 inch thick, and must contrast with the door. and the triangle on top of a circle must contrast with the circle. The symbols can be left blank, but they are an appropriate place to put the International Symbol of Accessibility, or wheelchair symbol, when the restrooms they identify are accessible.
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Typestyles, Character and Stroke Proportions and spacing for Tactile Characters
Although the original ADAAG only mentions proportions for visual characters and allows so-called "simple serifs" for tactile characters, California has more stringent requirements. Now, with the passage of the 2010 ADA/ABA, the federal requirements are similar to California's.
Currently, tactile characters must have character widths that are from 60 percent to 100 percent of their heights, and strokes must be a minimum of 10 percent, and a maximum of 20 percent of character height.
The 2010 ADA/ABA requires tactile characters to have a maximum stroke width, measured at the top surface of the character, of 15 percent. Measure character stroke width and height with the uppercase character "I."
New allowed character widths are from 55 percent minimum to 110 percent maximum of character height. For character width, the widest part of an uppercase letter "O" should be used. If the characters used for measurement fall within the parameters of the code, the entire font is presumed to be compliant.
The 2010 ADA/ABA now follows California and ANSI, and allows sans serif typefaces only for tactile characters. The most readable tactile character is sans serif, uppercase, with the character width as close to 100 percent of the height as possible, and with a stroke that is wider at the base and beveled to 10 percent of height at the top surface.
The 2010 ADA/ABA requires something new: spacing between characters. In tactile signs, each character in the same word must have a minimum of 1/8 inch space between the two closest points, measured at the top surface of the characters. When characters are both visual and tactile, beveled or rounded characters can have as little as 1/16 inch between the character bases. |
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