ADA Accessible Portable Toilet

An ADA unit is a wider, taller portable toilet with a ground-level entry, a wide door, interior grab bars and enough clear floor space for a wheelchair to turn around. It is not a nicer standard unit. It is a different unit, and on most public-facing events it is not optional.

The rule people get wrong: it is not one accessible unit per event as a courtesy. The generally applied standard is at least five percent of your total units, with a minimum of one. Twenty standard units on a festival site means one accessible unit is not enough. Ordering the ADA units at the same time as everything else costs you nothing extra. Discovering the gap the week of the event costs you a rush fee, if the supplier even has one available.

Placement matters more than it does for a standard unit. An accessible unit that sits at the top of a grass berm is decorative. It needs a firm, level surface with an accessible route to it, which in practice usually means the same paved or compacted path your guests are already using. If your site is all turf, budget for ground protection mats.

For construction sites, an accessible unit is required when you have a worker who needs one. Public projects and many general contractors write it into the sanitation spec by default, so check your contract before you assume standard units cover you.