ADA Compliant Products the Total Pricing Scam being pulled on Buildings Owners and you ultimately pay for it.

The ADA American with Disabilities Act was put into law in the 90's  to make it easier for the Handicapped and disabled to be able to move about the community and make things more accessible to them including being able to work.

$269.00  my dealer cost for this sign 

One of the items covered by ADA is the ability of the disabled to be safe while at work or worship ,going to doctor  etc so if the accessible building is multi floored and has an elevator to accommodate the disabled . There needs to be an area of rescue assistance  set aside to allow them to stay safely during an emergency so they can be rescued as they may not be able to get to or be able to use the elevator to escape.
 It can be a small fire proofed room or a landing in a fire proof stairway. The disabled individual goes to the area where they can close door behind them and then there is a special intercom button they push which activates an alarm usually in lobby area which alerts the First Responders some one needs help they can talk from master station to the safe area or if person can not communicate a light comes on at station to show there call for help  has been received,
Of course these areas need special signs like the one above so they know where to escape to.
  It is nothing more than a standard lighted
exit sign  which if it said Exit would cost about $ 85.00 each  but because it says Area of Rescue Assistance    instead of Exit its $269.00  Why? good question because there are only couple company's who make them  and the market is locked up . This is ridicules and just one of many  high scam costs associated with the ADA code as only certain company's make certain products ,and yes you the consumer end up paying for it down the road because the person owning the building charges more rent etc to Dr. , Lawyer etc your going to see to cover all the costs of making a building code compliant.
That rescue intercom which is nothing more than a beefed up Intercom which normally costs $300. ends up costing $2800.00+  that special little room that bigger stall in restroom all take up leasable  real estate so  this also adds to more costs  in running a building and even thou its not space that can be leased the building owner still gets real estate taxed on it .All in all to add ADA features and keep and ADA compliant building it adds 30%-40 to the cost .If the scammers who make ADA approved products where brought under control and architects and designers where held to proper ADA  design specs instead of building ADA restroom stalls much bigger than they need to be  so you only have one stall not 2 so some one with irritable bowel suffers when they can not get to a stall in time and the architects and designers get paid by what they spec so the  more expensive products they demand the more floor space they take the more they make  . These costs could be only 10% for a building owner if it was not for all the scamming going on. .
But instead its the wild west out there with costs which are constantly rising and in many cases the only ones really benefiting from ADA are the lawyers who sue and scammers who provide products. Those who are disabled like me the law was designed to protect are forgotten.