Bill Text: NJ A265 | 2024-2025 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Revises requirements for signage indicating accessible facilities for people with disabilities.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 2-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2024-01-09 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Aging and Human Services Committee [A265 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2024-A265-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
221st LEGISLATURE
PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2024 SESSION
Sponsored by:
Assemblywoman MICHELE MATSIKOUDIS
District 21 (Morris, Somerset and Union)
Assemblyman ALEX SAUICKIE
District 12 (Burlington, Middlesex, Monmouth and Ocean)
SYNOPSIS
Revises requirements for signage indicating accessible facilities for people with disabilities.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel.
An Act concerning accessibility signage and supplementing Title 39 of the Revised Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. a. Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, a sign, placard, license plate, or other marker that uses a wheelchair symbol to identify for the general public accessible features designed or designated for the use of a person with a disability shall depict, in place of the wheelchair used as the international symbol of access prior to the effective date of this act, a logo with a dynamic character leaning forward with a sense of movement. The logo shall be readily identifiable, simply designed with no secondary meaning, and provide for equivalent facilitation and accessibility as the international symbol of access. In any instance where the word "handicapped" would be used on a sign, placard, license plate, or other marker, the word "accessible" shall be used instead.
b. This section shall apply to signs, placards, license plates, and other markers being replaced or newly installed on or after the effective date of this act, and shall not be construed to require the replacement of a sign, placard, license plate, or other marker, if replacement is not otherwise necessary or appropriate.
2. This act shall take effect on the 60th day after the date of enactment.
STATEMENT
This bill would phase in the use of revised symbols and words on all signs, placards, license plates, and other devices used to identify for the general public accessible features designed or designated for the use of persons with disabilities, such as restrooms, access ramps, and parking spaces.
The bill would additionally require that all such signs, placards, license plates, and other devices use the word "accessible" in place of the word "handicapped."
This legislation would be part of a growing national and international movement to replace the current international symbol of access, which some advocates suggest conveys a sense of passivity and emphasizes the wheelchair over the person, with a new symbol of access that emphasizes the person in a dynamic posture suggesting mobility, action, and determination. The bill is based on legislation enacted by New York State and Connecticut adopting the phased-in use of the revised symbol of access. The revised symbol has been additionally adopted by hundreds of towns and cities, public and private organizations, governmental agencies, and individual citizens across the world.
The Accessible Icon Project has taken a leading role in promoting and supporting the adoption of the revised symbol of access, an example of which can be found on the Project's website. In place of the wheelchair symbol currently used as the international symbol of access, accessibility signs, placards, license plates, and other markers would use a logo depicting a dynamic character leaning forward with a sense of movement. The bill would require this logo to be readily identifiable, simply designed with no secondary meaning, and provide for equivalent facilitation and accessibility as the wheelchair symbol currently in use.
This bill would apply to signs, placards, license plates, and other markers being replaced or newly installed on or after the effective date of the bill, which would be the 60th day after the date of enactment. The bill expressly provides that it is not to be construed to require the replacement of a sign, placard, license plate, or other marker if replacement is not otherwise necessary or appropriate. Because it would only apply to signs, placards, license plates, and other devices that are newly-installed or that are being replaced, this bill will not impose any new or additional costs on the State above those it would normally incur installing new and replacement signs, placards, license plates, and other devices.
