Keeping Accessible Parking and Routes Clear in Winter

Does the ADA say snow has to be cleared?

The regulations talk about maintenance, and the Department of Justice's guidance applies that to snow. For public accommodations, 28 CFR 36.211 says a covered facility shall maintain in operable working condition those features of facilities and equipment that must be readily accessible to people with disabilities. For state and local governments, 28 CFR 35.133 uses nearly the same words for a public entity. Neither of those short sections contains the word snow.

The Justice Department's small business primer fills that in. A caption says snow or other debris in accessible parking spaces and access aisles must be removed as soon as possible. The same guide says that routinely storing a garbage bin or piling snow in accessible parking spaces makes them unusable and inaccessible to customers with mobility disabilities. That is about as direct as federal guidance gets on this topic, and it is written for businesses.

How quickly does accessible parking have to be cleared?

We did not find a number of hours in anything we read. The primer says as soon as possible, and it says temporary access interruptions for maintenance, repair or operational activities are permitted but must be remedied as soon as possible and may not extend beyond a reasonable period of time. The regulations say they do not prohibit isolated or temporary interruptions in service or access due to maintenance or repairs.

In practice, that points to clearing accessible features early in the sequence, and not leaving them for last. A local rule may add a specific deadline for a public sidewalk. Missoula, for example, requires sidewalks to be cleared of snow and ice within 24 hours following a snowfall, which is its own rule and is covered in our guide to Missoula sidewalk snow removal rules.

Which areas should be cleared for accessibility?

The Justice Department's ADA guide for small towns gives the clearest list we found. It says maintenance of accessible features would include the removal of snow from accessible parking spaces, parking space access aisles, the accessible route to the accessible entrance, and accessible entrances. That guide is written for towns under the rules for public entities, but it is a helpful checklist for any site, and it describes the whole path a person has to travel instead of a single space.

A 2001 settlement between the United States and the Maryland Stadium Authority used similar language. It required the operator to maintain accessible parking spaces and access aisles and the accessible routes from the aisles to the accessible entrances so that they are reasonably free of snow, ice, excess water or any other obstacle made by natural occurrences. That was one negotiated agreement for one facility and it is not a general rule, but it shows how the Justice Department framed the issue in that case, including ice and standing water as well as snow.

What makes an accessible route, and how wide must it stay?

The U.S. Access Board's guide to the standards says components of accessible routes include walking surfaces, doorways, ramps, curb ramps and elevators, and that a route must serve accessible spaces and elements on a site, including exterior ones. It gives design figures worth having in your head while you are looking at a cleared path: continuous clear width of at least 36 inches, running slope no steeper than 1:20 on walking surfaces, cross slope no steeper than 1:48, and surfaces that are firm, stable and slip resistant.

These are design standards, not snow rules, and the Access Board chapter we read does not mention snow. But they make the practical point. A path shoveled one shovel-width wide with a lumpy ridge down the middle may look clear to someone walking and still be useless to someone using a wheelchair or a walker. Changes in level matter as well, since the guide says level changes up to half an inch must be beveled unless they are a quarter inch or less. A frozen ridge from a plow is a change in level, even if it melts next week.

What about the access aisle next to the parking space?

The aisle is the part most often lost to snow, because it looks like an empty place to push snow. The Access Board's parking chapter says an access aisle at least 60 inches wide and at least as long as the space is required for car spaces. Van spaces provide an additional 3 feet of width, either in the space or in the aisle, its figures showing a 132-inch space with a 60-inch aisle or a 96-inch space with a 96-inch aisle. It adds that the space and the aisle both must be marked, and that the aisle should be marked to discourage parking in it.

Under snow, those markings disappear, which makes this easy to get wrong. Mark the accessible spaces and their aisles before the first storm so the operator can see them, and write in the snow plan that they never take a pile. The guide also says these areas cannot have changes in level other than slopes of 1:48 or less, and a pile that melts and refreezes across an aisle works directly against that. Our guide to writing a snow plan for a parking lot has more on storage.

How should a site plan the clearing order?

Think of the trip a person actually makes, and clear it in that order. For most sites, it runs from the accessible space and aisle to the curb ramp, along the walk to the accessible entrance, and through the entrance itself. Our own commercial accounts put entrances, accessible parking and main pedestrian routes first, then the rest of the lot, then the edges, as our commercial snow removal page describes. A driver leaving a clean lot and a berm across the ramp has not finished the job.

Curb ramps deserve their own line. A plow working along a curb leaves a ridge at exactly the point where a ramp meets the lot, and the ramp is only useful if that ridge is gone. Clear the bottom of the ramp by hand or with a smaller machine if the plow cannot reach it. Do the same at bus stops and drop-off zones if they are part of your route. Check again after the plow has finished, since the last pass is often what closes a ramp that was open earlier.

Ice follows the same logic. Slip resistance is part of the standard for a route, so treat refreeze on the accessible route first. On accessible routes shaded by a building, or on a ramp collecting melt from a pile uphill, a visit may be needed when no new snow has fallen. Our guide on sand, salt or both covers what to put down, and our black ice guide covers where to look.

What if snow cannot be cleared in time?

Have a backup plan, particularly at a site offering a service people need that day. The small towns guide says that although temporary interruptions in services due to bad weather are expected, alternate services should be provided if snow and ice cannot be cleared in a timely manner. It is written about town services, but the idea transfers: tell people how to reach you, offer to bring the service to the door or reschedule, and do not treat a blocked ramp as an acceptable state of affairs for the rest of the day.

Make it easy for people to report a problem. A phone number on the door and on the website will tell you about a blocked aisle faster than a drive-by, and it gives you a chance to fix it. On a medical or care site, this is more urgent, and our guide to snow and ice management for medical and care facilities goes further.

Does the ADA apply to my property?

That is a question for an attorney, and we will not try to answer it for you. The two regulations we read are written for public accommodations and public entities, and the primer is addressed to businesses that serve the public. If you run a shop, an office, a clinic or a public building, those are the documents to start with. If you manage apartments or an HOA, other laws may be involved that we have not read for this article, so ask a lawyer about your exact property.

The Justice Department also runs an ADA Information Line, listed in the primer as 800-514-0301 (voice) and 1-833-610-1264 (TTY), Monday through Friday, staffed by ADA specialists. That is a good first call for a general question. Snow clearing plans do not replace that advice. We reported what the pages said when we checked them on November 2, 2026, and guidance can change.

What should you ask your snow contractor?

Ask how accessible spaces, aisles and ramps fit in their sequence, whether they clear by hand where a plow cannot reach, what happens when a pile starts to creep into a space, and who is responsible for re-checking after a late pass. Ask for it in writing as part of the scope. If they have never thought about it, that tells you something. Also see our guides to what an HOA should expect from a snow contractor and snow and ice for retail and storefronts.

How does HJ handle accessible routes?

On commercial sites, we set up the sequence, the pile locations and the marking before winter, with entrances and accessible routes first in line. It is part of our snow and storm services, and this article sits in our Montana Winter Property Guide. We clear snow and manage ice. We do not give legal advice, and a walk-through with us is not an ADA compliance review.

Call HJ Property Care & Tree Service at (406) 215-7319 or reserve a spot on a 2026-27 snow route before the first storm.

More resources