Which rooms need braille, the exact character and mounting specs, and the mistakes that fail an inspection.
ADA signage failures are almost never about a sign being missing. They're about height, glare, or dot geometry, details that are cheap to get right up front and expensive to fix once a sign is already mounted.
Which signs need tactile characters and braille
Signs identifying permanent rooms and spaces need it: restrooms, exits, stairwells, numbered rooms, and anything whose function won't change. Directional signs, temporary signs and occupant-name signs generally don't need it.
The specs an inspector actually checks
- Characters raised 1/32", uppercase, sans serif, between 5/8" and 2" tall.
- Grade 2 braille below the text, with domed or rounded dots.
- Non-glare finish and high contrast between the characters and the background.
- Mounted 48"-60" above the floor to the baseline of the tactile characters.
- Placed on the latch side of the door, or the nearest adjacent wall if that's not possible.
The three failures we see most
Glossy finishes come first. A beautifully polished sign fails inspection because glare kills readability. Mounting height comes second, usually because a sign went on the door itself instead of beside it. Flat printed braille comes third, and it isn't braille at all. The dots have to be physically raised and domed.
Specifying a whole building at once
Build a sign schedule before ordering anything: every room, its number, its function, whether it's permanent, and the exact copy. Produce the whole set to one finish standard and label by room so installation is just plug and go. Local codes can add requirements beyond the federal standard, so check with your jurisdiction before production starts.