Hawaii Administrative Rules
Title 11 - DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH
Subtitle 1 - GENERAL DEPARTMENTAL PROVISIONS
Chapter 216 - DISABILITY AND COMMUNICATION ACCESS BOARD RULES OF PRACTICE AND PROCEDURES
Subchapter 1 - GENERAL PROVISIONS
Section 11-216-2 - Definitions
As used in this chapter, unless the context requires otherwise:
"Accessible" means a site, building, facility, or portion thereof that complies with the accessibility guidelines;
"Accessible route" means a continuous unobstructed path connecting all accessible elements and spaces of a building or facility. Interior accessible routes may include corridors, floors, ramps, elevators, lifts, and clear floor space at fixtures. Exterior accessible routes may include parking access aisles, curb ramps, crosswalks at vehicular ways, walks, ramps, and lifts;
"ADAAG" means the Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines, Title 36 Code of Federal Regulations Part 1191, as amended;
"Addition" means an expansion, extension, or increase in the gross floor area or height of a building or facility;
"Alteration" means a change to a building or facility that affects or could affect the usability of the building or facility or portion thereof. Alterations include, but are not limited to, remodeling, renovation, rehabilitation, reconstruction, historic restoration, resurfacing of circulation paths or vehicular ways, changes or rearrangement of the structural parts or elements, and changes or rearrangement in the plan configuration of walls and full-height partitions. Normal maintenance, reroofing, painting or wallpapering, or changes to mechanical and electrical systems are not alterations unless they affect the usability of the building or facility;
"Applicant" means the person, agency, or officer for whom the interpretive opinion and site specific alternate design proceeding is instituted.
"Barrier removal" means the removal, rearrangement, restructuring, alteration, or addition, of any element or space of a building or facility to make it usable by persons with disabilities;
"Building" means any structure used and intended for supporting or sheltering any use or occupancy;
"Board" means the disability and communication access board;
"Circulation path" means an exterior or interior way of passage provided for pedestrian travel, including, but not limited to, walks, hallways, courtyards, elevators, platform lifts, ramps, stairways, and landings;
"Construction" means all the on-site and off-site work done to build, add, alter, or maintain structures, from land clearance through completion, including excavation, erection, utilities, streets, walkways, and the assembly and installation of components and equipment;
"Construction document" means plan, specifications, addenda, modifications or changes, and other documents for the construction of a building or facility including preliminary, prefinal, and final versions of these documents;
"Covered multifamily dwellings" means buildings consisting of four or more dwelling units if such buildings have one or more elevators, and ground floor dwelling units in other buildings consisting of four or more dwelling units. Dwelling units within a single structure separated by firewalls do not constitute separate buildings;
"Document review" means a review of the construction documents to verify compliance with the accessibility guidelines and issuance of a written report listing items that do not conform to the accessibility guidelines;
"Element" means an architectural or mechanical component of a building, facility, space, or site;
"Facility" means all or any portion of buildings, structures, site improvements, elements, and pedestrian routes or vehicular ways located on a site;
"Facility access unit" means staff of the disability and communication access board.
"Fair Housing Amendments Act Accessibility Guidelines" means federal design guidelines used to implement the accessibility requirements of the Fair Housing Act of 1988, Title 24 Code of Federal Regulations Part 100, Subpart D;
"Interpretive opinion" means a determination as to the applicability or non-applicability with respect to a factual situation of any guideline of the disability and communication access board or of a statute which the disability and communication access board is required to administer or enforce, as determined by the disability and communication access board pursuant to section 103-50, HRS;
"Maximum extent feasible" means the occasional case where the nature of an existing facility makes it virtually impossible to comply fully with applicable accessibility guidelines through a planned alteration. In these circumstances, the alteration shall provide the maximum physical accessibility feasible;
"Party" means each person admitted as a participant, or properly seeking and entitled to be admitted as a participant in any committee proceeding;
"Person*" means an individual, a private or public organization of any character, a trust or estate, a society or firm, an assembly, a partnership, a corporation, a professional corporation, an association, the State, any political subdivision of the State, a county, a State agency or any instrumentality of a county;
"Petitioner" means a party making or on whose behalf a petition or application is made for an interpretive opinion, site specific alternate design review, or design specification proceeding.
"Presiding Officer" means the person conducting an interpretive opinion, site specific alternate design review, or guideline proceeding who may be the chairperson of the board or the chairperson's representative.
"Primary function" means a major activity for which the facility is intended. Areas that contain a primary function include, but are not limited to, the dining area of a cafeteria, the meeting rooms in a conference center, as well as offices and other work areas in which the activities of the public entity using the facility are carried out. Mechanical rooms, boiler rooms, supply storage rooms, employee lounges or locker rooms, janitorial closets, entrances, and corridors are not areas containing a primary function. Restrooms are not areas containing a primary function unless the provision of restrooms is a primary purpose of the area, e.g., in highway rest stops. For the purposes of this section, alterations to windows, hardware, controls, electrical outlets, and signage shall not be deemed to be alterations that affect the usability of or access to an area containing a primary function;
"Public buildings, facilities, and sites" means buildings, facilities, sites, and the infrastructure thereof that:
(1) Are designed, constructed, purchased, or leased with the use of any federal, state, or county funds;
(2) House state or county programs, services, or activities that are intended to be accessed by the general public; or
(3) Are places of public accommodation or commercial facilities under the Americans with Disabilities Act, Title 28 Code of Federal Regulations Part 36, and are constructed on state or county lands;
(4) Are constructed on lands that will be transferred to the State or a county upon completion of construction.
"Public use" means interior or exterior rooms, spaces, or elements that are made available to the public. Public use may be provided at a building or facility that is privately or publicly owned;
"Repair and maintenance" means preventative and routine upkeep, and/or preservation or restoration of an existing element, space, building, or facility. Normal maintenance, reroofing, painting or wallpapering, asbestos removal, or changes to mechanical and electrical systems are not alterations unless they affect the usability of the building or facility;
"Resubmittal" means plans, specifications, addenda, modifications or changes, and other documentation submitted as a reply to the original document review;
"Site" means a parcel of land bounded by a property line or a designated portion of a public right-of-way;
"Site specific alternate design" means a relief from specific requirements of section 103-50, HRS, as determined by the disability and communication access board pursuant to section 103-50, HRS, when the site specific alternate design will ensure an alternate design that provides equal or greater access for persons with disabilities;
"Space" means a definable area, such as a room, toilet room, hall, assembly area, entrance, storage room, alcove, courtyard, or lobby;
"Structural impracticability" means those rare circumstances when the unique characteristics of terrain prevent the incorporation of accessibility features;
"Technical infeasibility" means with respect to an alteration of a building or a facility, something that has little likelihood of being accomplished because existing structural conditions would require removing or altering a load-bearing member that is an essential part of the structural frame; or because other existing physical or site constraints prohibit modification or addition of elements, spaces, or features that are in full and strict compliance with the minimum requirements.
