For our festival, the city permit says 'follow ADA.' What does that mean for our porta potty order?

For a cluster of 20 standard portable toilets, the 2010 ADA Standards require at least one ADA-compliant unit in that same cluster. The rule is 5 percent of the toilets in each cluster, and never fewer than one. On 20 units that is one accessible toilet, so an order of only 20 standards is short unless you swap one out or add an ADA unit.

"Follow ADA" on a special event permit usually means the city expects that accessible unit on site, on firm level ground a wheelchair can reach, with the clearances the standard calls for. One ADA unit covers a single 20-unit cluster. If you split the toilets into two distant clusters of ten, each cluster needs its own accessible unit.

Handwash stations next to the toilets are not covered by that same toilet-cluster percentage. If you put handwash at the cluster anyway, keep an accessible handwash station on the same path as the ADA unit so someone using that stall can wash without leaving the accessible route.

I run park events with language this vague all the time. Treat the permit note as a hard requirement, not a suggestion, and lock the ADA unit into the order before the truck rolls.