Home / ADA Guidelines for Drinking Fountains and Bottle Fillers

ADA Guidelines for Drinking Fountains and Bottle Fillers

Explore resources to better understand ADA guidelines for designing and installing drinking fountains and bottle fillers. At Haws, we are dedicated to providing educational materials on this topic and hosting accredited events to keep professionals informed about current regulations and evolving standards.

Browse ADA Accessible Units

Drinking Fountains and Bottle Fillers Must Be ADA Accessible

Drinking fountains are part of an extensive list of publicly accessible building elements within the current 2010 ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) Standards for Accessible Designs created by the U.S. Access Board and enforced by the Department of Justice (DOJ). To the surprise of many, accessible drinking fountains are high up on the list, only behind public restrooms and telephones, and surmounting public parking, storage, and alarms.

The Americans With Disabilities Act was signed in the 1990s, to ensure anyone with a disability had equal access to public accommodations and commercial facilities.

Get CEUs and expert advice

As an industry leader in hydration, we have been hosting this master class for more than 7 years with 1500+ attendees choosing to learn our tips and best practices.

During the class we will cover the following topics:

ADA Standards for Accessible Design of Drinking Fountains and installation dimensions
Quantity and location requirements
Selecting and maintaining your hydration equipment
Live Q&A

The History of ADA

In the 1990s, President Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act to ensure anyone with a disability had equal access to public accommodations and commercial facilities. From a building owner perspective, this act often called for significant and expensive reconstruction, as there is no “Grandfather Clause” allowing for existing facilities to bypass the new regulations. All new and existing facilities, regardless of age, were to comply with the new standards, from adding wheelchair ramps and upgrading bathroom stalls and sinks, to retrofitting drinking fountains to allow for wheelchair access.

The key section that pertains to drinking fountains is Part 36, Title III for the Nondiscrimination on the Basis by Disability of Public Accommodations and in Commercial Facilities. The significant requirements for proper specification and installation of this section are outlined in the remainder of this article.

LOCATION AND QUANTITY [Section 211]

ADA Requirements for Drinking Fountains

The standard does not call out specifics for locations of drinking fountains, but they are commonly found installed near to restroom facilities for easy access to water.

Section 211 Location & Quantity states:

No fewer than two drinking fountains shall be provided on each publicly accessible floor of a building:
One fountain for standing persons with disabilities bending or stooping, such as those with a walker or crutches
One fountain for those in a wheelchair

These two fountains can be next to each other by installing what is commonly referred to as a “hi-lo” drinking fountain, the high for standing persons with stooping disabilities, and the low for wheelchair accessibility. Facilities can also place the high and low units as separate units in nearby areas. This is particularly helpful in historical renovations with tight spaces and difficult to move walls. When it comes to quantity of drinking fountains, local plumbing codes determine how many are required based on building load capacity. The ADA only stipulates that where there are drinking fountains, there must be two: one high and one low.

If more than the minimum number of fountains are provided, 50% must be high and 50% for low. If the required or provided number of fountains is an odd number, there is flexibility in which one you can have more of, in other words, if 7 fountains are required, you can do either 4 high and 3 low, or 3 high and 4 low.

Section 305

Size and Position

Clear floor or ground space must be a minimum of 30” x 48” for either a forward or parallel approach. For building elements like drinking fountains, it is a key stipulation in the ADA. Many states, such as California, exceed the national standard and call for a 32” x 48” clear floor space.

12 years and younger

CHILDREN’S REACH RANGES

Section 308 also includes reach ranges for Children’s Use, and a DOJ Advisory introduces the below table of dimensions broken down by children’s ages.

Forward or Side Reach	Ages 3 & 4	Ages 5 to 8	Ages 9 to 12
High (Maximum)	36 inches	40 inches	44 inches
Low (Minimum)	20 inches	18 inches	16 inches

Section 305.7

Alcove Installations

Many jurisdictions prefer accessible building elements like drinking fountains to be located within an alcove, out of the path of travel.

FORWARD APPROACH – 36” wide minimum where the depth exceeds 24” [Section 305.7.1]
PARALLEL APPROACH – 60” wide minimum where the depth exceeds 15” [Section 305.7.2]

high low mount bottle filler and drinking fountain

NEW ICC-ANSI STANDARD A117.1-2017

BOTTLE FILLING STATIONS

In January of 2017, a revised version of the A117.1 was published, and it is incorporated bottle filling stations to the drinking fountain section referenced above.

ADA Guidelines for

BOTTLE FILLING STATIONS

When providing bottle fillers, ADA Guidelines mandate that the bottle filler must be installed above the wheelchair accessible drinking fountain to comply with sections 602.4.1 and 602.401. An additional bottle filler may be installed above the high side drinking fountain, “provided that a bottle filling station is also located at the wheelchair accessible drinking fountain.

Controls for the bottle filling stations can be hand operated or automatic, and the reach should be no higher than 48” above the surface floor. If the bottle filler is installed above a child height fountain, the reach cannot exceed 44”. Whether it’s public buildings, airports, universities, hospitals, or commercial buildings, providing easy access to elements of all facilities by all people is the goal of the ADA Standards for Accessible Design.

Section 308

Reach Ranges & Bottle Fillers

Section 308 states reach ranges are an important consideration with the ever-increasing popularity of bottle fillers.

UNOBSTRUCTED REACH

In instances where you may have a standalone wall-mounted bottle filler with no drinking fountain, the high forward reach can be 48” maximum.

OBSTRUCTED REACH

In instances where a drinking fountain is installed and protrudes 20” or less horizontally from the wall, the high forward reach range can be at a 48” maximum.
In instances where a drinking fountain is installed and protrudes more than 20” – 25” horizontally from the wall, the high forward reach range can be
at a 44” maximum.