public-service · 2010 ADA Standards edition
Which ADA Standards Edition Binds State and Local Governments?
Federal regulations settle which edition of the Access Board's guidelines makes up the legally binding 2010 ADA Standards.
In this article
Updated: Sources: 4
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What matters now
- The 2010 Standards for state/local governments are 28 CFR 35.151 plus Appendices B and D published in the 2009 CFR edition.
- Access Board revisions to Appendices B and D since 2009 have no legal effect until DOJ adopts them.
- The regulation itself warns against using post-2013 editions of Appendices B and D as the standard.
- DOJ regulations define 2004 ADAAG as the appendices set forth in 36 CFR part 1191 (2009).
For state and local government facilities, the legally binding “2010 ADA Standards” are not whatever version of the Access Board’s guidelines happens to be posted on eCFR today. By regulation, they are a fixed combination: the current rule at 28 CFR 35.151, plus the design specifications in Appendices B and D to 36 CFR part 1191 — frozen at the text published in the 2009 edition of the Code of Federal Regulations. Any change the Access Board has made to those appendices since 2009 does not become part of the legal standard unless and until the Department of Justice (DOJ) separately adopts it.
This original record-reading guide is a general reading aid, not cited evidence. It does not depict a source record; the article text and source links provide the facts.
Key points
- The 2010 Standards for state and local governments consist of 28 CFR 35.151 plus Appendices B and D “published in the 2009 edition of the Code of Federal Regulations.” (https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-36/section-1191.1)
- Access Board revisions to Appendices B and D made after that 2009 edition “have no legal effect for facilities subject to its ADA regulations until adopted by the Department of Justice.” (https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-36/section-1191.1)
- The regulation’s own text warns the public “not to use Appendices B and D to this part published in any edition of the Code of Federal Regulations after 2013” as the standard. (https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-36/section-1191.1)
- DOJ’s own regulations define “2004 ADAAG” as specifically the appendices “set forth in appendices B and D to 36 CFR part 1191 (2009).” (https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-28/section-35.104)
Pinned to the 2009 CFR edition
The operative regulatory text is explicit about which edition governs. As 36 CFR 1191.1 states:
“For state and local governments, the 2010 Standards consist of the regulations at 28 CFR 35.151 and the versions of Appendices B and D to this part published in the 2009 edition of the Code of Federal Regulations.” (https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-36/section-1191.1)
That means the current, live text of 36 CFR part 1191 on eCFR — which is subject to further Access Board revision — is not itself the legal standard for ADA-covered facilities. The legal standard is the snapshot of Appendices B and D as they read in the 2009 CFR edition.
Revisions need DOJ adoption
The same section explains why the Access Board’s ongoing edits to 36 CFR part 1191 don’t automatically change what facilities must follow:
“Because Appendices B and D to this part, as published in the 2009 edition of the Code of Federal Regulations, were adopted by reference by the Department of Justice as part of the 2010 Standards … subsequent revisions to Appendices B and D by the Access Board are not included in the 2010 Standards and have no legal effect for facilities subject to its ADA regulations until adopted by the Department of Justice.” (https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-36/section-1191.1)
In other words, the Access Board and DOJ maintain separate tracks: the Access Board can keep updating its guidelines, but those updates only become legally binding for ADA compliance once DOJ takes its own separate adoption action.
Caution against post-2013 editions
36 CFR 1191.1 goes further and directly cautions readers against treating any later edition as the standard:
“Therefore, the public is cautioned not to use Appendices B and D to this part published in any edition of the Code of Federal Regulations after 2013, until such time as the later edition is adopted by the Department of Justice as a regulatory standard.” (https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-36/section-1191.1)
For a reader checking eCFR today, this means the live, current version of Appendices B and D is not automatically a safe stand-in for the 2009 text — it only becomes part of the legal standard once DOJ adopts it.
How federal regulations define “2004 ADAAG”
DOJ’s own implementing regulations tie their definitions back to this same 2009 edition. Under 28 CFR 35.104:
“2004 ADAAG means the requirements set forth in appendices B and D to 36 CFR part 1191 (2009).” (https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-28/section-35.104)
28 CFR 36.104 — the Title III counterpart to 28 CFR 35.104 — appears to define the term the same way, anchored to the same 2009 edition (https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-28/section-36.104). The 2009 print edition itself — the fixed reference point all of these cross-references point to — is archived at GovInfo as “36 CFR Ch. XI (7–1–09 Edition)” (https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CFR-2009-title36-vol3/pdf/CFR-2009-title36-vol3-sec1191-1.pdf).
What this article does not answer
This article settles only which edition of the Access Board’s guidelines is legally incorporated into the 2010 ADA Standards — it does not identify what has actually changed in the text of Appendices B and D between the 2009 edition and any later Access Board revision. It also does not say whether or when DOJ might adopt a later edition as a new regulatory standard; the regulation itself leaves that open and simply warns against assuming any post-2013 edition already applies. Finally, nothing here evaluates whether any specific facility, design, or person’s situation complies with the 2010 Standards — the record addressed here only establishes which edition of the text is legally operative, not how it applies to any particular case.