Texas ADA Bathroom Requirements: Dimensions, Signage, and Inspections

Bathrooms in Texas commercial and public buildings must meet the 2012 Texas Accessibility Standards (TAS), a state ruleset administered by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation that mirrors the federal ADA but adds its own registration and inspection process. Texas ADA bathroom requirements cover stall size, toilet placement, grab bars, lavatory clearance, faucet and fixture operation, mirror and dispenser heights, door width and closing force, and tactile signage. Any construction or renovation with an estimated cost of $50,000 or more has to be submitted to TDLR for plan review before work begins.¹

Which Buildings Are Covered

The Elimination of Architectural Barriers law in Texas Government Code Chapter 469 applies to public and commercial buildings, including restaurants, retail stores, hotels, medical offices, and other places open to the public. Spaces used primarily for religious rituals inside a building owned by a religious organization are outside the scope, and in a mixed residential-commercial building only the nonresidential portion is evaluated.²

Where toilet rooms are provided in new construction, each one has to comply. There is no option to make one restroom on a floor accessible and leave the rest untouched.

Toilet, Stall, and Grab Bar Dimensions

TAS 604 sets the measurements inside the accessible stall, and inspectors check them with a tape.³

Water closet seat height: 17 to 19 inches above the finished floor.
Toilet centerline: 16 to 18 inches from the side wall or partition.
Seats cannot be spring-loaded to return to a lifted position.
Flush controls must be on the open (transfer) side of the toilet, not the wall side.

The clear floor space around the water closet must be at least 60 inches wide measured from the side wall. Depth from the rear wall must be at least 56 inches for wall-hung toilets or 59 inches for floor-mounted models.⁴ The restroom itself has to include a 60-inch-diameter turning space so a wheelchair user can make a full rotation.³

Grab bars are required on the side wall and the rear wall. The side wall bar has to be at least 42 inches long, mounted no more than 12 inches from the rear wall, and extend at least 54 inches from the rear wall. The rear wall bar has to be at least 36 inches long, extending at least 12 inches on one side of the toilet centerline and at least 24 inches on the other. If a recessed fixture limits wall space, the rear bar can drop to 24 inches when centered on the toilet.⁵

When You Also Need an Ambulatory Stall

Count the water closets and urinals together. If the combined total in a restroom is six or more, at least one ambulatory accessible compartment is required in addition to the wheelchair stall. Ambulatory stalls serve people who walk but need parallel grab bars on both sides. They must be at least 60 inches deep and between 35 and 37 inches wide, narrower than a wheelchair stall but wide enough to keep the user within reach of both bars.

Lavatory, Mirror, and Dispenser Rules

An accessible lavatory must allow a forward approach so a wheelchair user can pull directly up to the sink. Knee clearance under the basin has to be at least 27 inches high, and past a depth of 8 inches from the front edge the clearance can taper to a 9-inch toe space. Water supply and drain pipes underneath must be insulated, enclosed, or otherwise configured so a user’s legs can’t contact them. Exposed hot pipes are a burn hazard for anyone with reduced sensation.⁶

Faucets have to work with one hand, without tight grasping, pinching, or twisting the wrist. Operating force cannot exceed 5 pounds. Lever handles, push controls, and electronic sensor faucets all meet the standard.⁶

A mirror mounted above a lavatory has to have the bottom edge of the reflecting surface no higher than 40 inches from the floor. A full-length mirror placed elsewhere in the room has no height cap, but the one over the sink is fixed at that 40-inch maximum.⁷

Every accessory that a user has to operate manually — soap dispensers, paper towel dispensers, hand dryers, sanitary product dispensers — must have its highest operable part no more than 48 inches above the floor. A soap dispenser mounted directly over a lavatory drops to a 44-inch maximum because the user has to reach across the basin. Like faucets, these accessories must be operable with one hand and without tight grasping or twisting.

Doors and Signage

The restroom entry door has to give a minimum clear opening of 32 inches, measured from the door stop to the face of the door when it’s open at 90 degrees. If the doorway is deeper than 24 inches, that minimum jumps to 36 inches.⁸

The force to open an interior restroom door cannot exceed 5 pounds of continuous pressure. That limit applies to the steady push needed to swing the door, not the initial force to break the seal. Fire doors are an exception and may require whatever the fire code demands. If the door has a closer, the closer has to take at least 5 seconds to travel from 90 degrees open down to 12 degrees, slow enough that a wheelchair user can’t be caught mid-entry.⁸

Restroom identification signs must include raised characters and Grade 2 Braille. The sign goes on the latch side of the door, not on the door itself, so someone using tactile reading can find it in a predictable place. Mounting is measured by character baseline: the lowest tactile character has to sit at least 48 inches above the floor, and the highest tactile baseline cannot exceed 60 inches.⁹

Unisex and Family Restrooms

When a building includes a unisex or family restroom, that room can contain no more than one lavatory and either two water closets or one water closet and one urinal. The door has to have a privacy latch. Unisex rooms aren’t mandated everywhere, but they matter during alterations: if making an existing multi-user restroom fully accessible isn’t technically feasible, providing an accessible unisex restroom on the same floor can satisfy the requirement.

Registration, Plan Review, and Inspection

A project with an estimated construction cost of $50,000 or more has to be registered with TDLR before construction begins, and all plans and specifications have to be submitted for review. A Registered Accessibility Specialist checks the drawings against TAS. The project filing fee is $175. Register after construction is already complete and a $300 late filing fee stacks on top of the other charges.¹

Projects under $50,000 still have to meet TAS. They just use a simplified special registration with TDLR instead of a full plan review.¹ After construction wraps, the building owner has 30 days to request an inspection for TAS compliance.

Renovations and Existing Buildings

If you alter any element, space, or common area, the altered portion has to meet current standards, and you can’t reduce accessibility below what applied when the building was originally constructed.¹⁰

A renovation that affects a primary function area pulls in more than the room being remodeled. The path of travel to that area, including the restrooms, drinking fountains, and telephones serving it, has to be made accessible to the maximum extent feasible. A proportionality limit caps this: if bringing the path of travel fully into compliance would consume a disproportionate share of the renovation budget, the obligation scales back accordingly.¹⁰

Even without a renovation, the federal ADA requires existing businesses open to the public to remove architectural barriers when doing so is “readily achievable,” meaning without much difficulty or expense. What counts as readily achievable depends on the business’s size and financial resources, not a fixed dollar threshold. Adding a grab bar or lowering a mirror will usually qualify. Reconfiguring a whole restroom layout usually will not for a small business.

What Non-Compliance Costs

TDLR splits state violations into tiers. Failing to register a project, submit plans, or request a timely inspection is a Class A violation, with fines from $500 to $3,000 on a first offense, $1,500 to $4,000 on a second, and $2,500 to $5,000 on a third. Violating TAS itself is a Class B violation, starting higher: $1,000 to $3,000 for a first offense, $2,000 to $4,000 for a second, and $4,000 to $5,000 for a third.¹¹

Federal exposure looks different. A private individual who encounters a barrier can sue under ADA Title III, but the remedy is limited to a court order requiring the fix, plus attorney’s fees. Money damages aren’t available to private plaintiffs. When the U.S. Department of Justice brings the case, the numbers change: as of the 2025 inflation adjustment, the maximum civil penalty is $118,225 for a first violation and $236,451 for subsequent violations.¹² Those are maximums rather than automatic assessments, and many matters resolve through settlement, but ignoring a complaint and waiting for DOJ is an expensive way to test the limit.¹³

1
Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. Architectural Barriers Fee Schedule
2
State of Texas. Texas Government Code 469.003 – Applicability of Standards
3
Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. 2012 Texas Accessibility Standards – Chapter 6 Plumbing Elements and Facilities
4
ADA.gov. 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design
5
U.S. Access Board. Chapter 6 – Plumbing Elements and Facilities
6
U.S. Access Board. Guide to the ADA Accessibility Standards – Chapter 6 Lavatories and Sinks
7
U.S. Access Board. Guide to the ADA Accessibility Standards – Chapter 6 Lavatories and Sinks – Section: Mirror Height
8
U.S. Access Board. Guide to the ADA Accessibility Standards – Chapter 4 Entrances, Doors, and Gates
9
U.S. Access Board. Guide to the ADA Accessibility Standards – Chapter 7 Signs
10
Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. 2012 Texas Accessibility Standards – Chapter 2 Scoping Requirements
11
Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. Architectural Barriers Penalties and Sanctions
12
Federal Register. Civil Monetary Penalties Inflation Adjustments for 2025
13
eCFR. 28 CFR 36.504