(a) This article is concerned with nonambulatory disabilities, semiambulatory disabilities, sight disabilities, hearing disabilities, disabilities of incoordination and aging.

(b) It is intended to make all buildings and facilities covered by this article accessible to, and functional for, the physically handicapped to, through and within their doors, without loss of function, space or facility where the general public is concerned.

For the purposes of this article the following terms shall have the meanings as set forth in this section:

(1) NONAMBULATORY DISABILITIES. Impairments that, regardless of cause or manifestation, for all practical purposes, confine individuals to wheelchairs.

(2) SEMIAMBULATORY DISABILITIES. Impairments that cause individuals to walk with difficulty or insecurity. Individuals using braces or crutches, amputees, arthritics, those with neuromuscular disorders and those with pulmonary and cardiac ills may be semiambulatory.

(3) SIGHT DISABILITIES. Total blindness or impairments affecting sight to the extent that the individual functioning in public areas is insecure or exposed to danger.

(4) HEARING DISABILITIES. Deafness or hearing handicaps that might make an individual insecure in public areas because he is unable to communicate or hear warning signals.

(5) DISABILITIES OF INCOORDINATION. Faulty coordination or palsy from brain, spinal or peripheral nerve injury.

(6) AGING. Those manifestations of the aging processes that significantly reduce mobility, flexibility, coordination and perceptiveness but are not accounted for in the aforementioned categories.

(7) STANDARD. When this term appears in small letters it is descriptive and shall mean typical type.

(8) FIXED TURNING RADIUS, WHEEL TO WHEEL. The tracking of the caster wheels and large wheels of a wheelchair when pivoting on a spot.

(9) FIXED TURNING RADIUS, FRONT STRUCTURE TO REAR STRUCTURE. The turning radius of the wheelchair, left front foot platform to right rear wheel or right front foot platform to left rear wheel, when pivoting on a spot.

(10) INVOLVED (INVOLVEMENT). A portion or portions of the human anatomy or physiology or both that have a loss or impairment of normal function as a result of genesis, trauma, disease, inflammation or degeneration.

(11) RAMPS, RAMPS WITH GRADIENTS. Ramps with gradients or ramps with slopes that deviate from what would otherwise be considered the normal level. An exterior ramp, as distinguished from a 'walk' shall be considered an appendage to a building leading to a level above or below existing ground level. As such, a ramp shall meet certain requirements similar to those imposed upon stairs.

(12) WALK, WALKS. A predetermined, prepared-surface exterior pathway leading to or from a building or a facility or from one exterior area to another, placed on the existing ground level and not deviating from the level of the existing ground immediately adjacent.

(13) APPROPRIATE NUMBER. The number of a specific item that would be reasonably necessary, in accord with the purpose and function of a building or a facility, to accommodate individuals with specific disabilities in proportion to the anticipated number of individuals with disabilities who would use a particular building or facility.

It is the intention of the Legislature in enacting this article to promote the fundamental right to vote by requiring registration and polling places for state elections to be readily accessible to handicapped and elderly individuals.

As used in this article, unless the context clearly indicates a different meaning, the following terms shall have meanings ascribed to them as follows:

(1) ELDERLY INDIVIDUAL. An individual 65 years of age or older;

(2) ELECTION FOR STATE OFFICE. A general, special primary, or runoff election for an executive, legislative or judicial state office that is contested on a statewide basis;

(3) HANDICAPPED INDIVIDUAL. An individual qualified to vote, who, by reason of illness, injury, age, congenital malfunction, or other permanent or temporary incapacity or disability, is unable without accessible facilities or registration and voting aids to have access to registration and voting equal to that available to persons who are not so affected;

(4) STATE. State of Alabama;

(5) VOTING PRECINCT. The area inhabited by all individuals assigned to one polling place for a state election.

(a) The Attorney General of this state, in consultation with the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services, and in accordance with Section 553 of Title 5, United States Code, shall promulgate, within six months of April 8, 1985, guidelines to assure that registration and polling place facilities used for state elections are readily accessible to and usable by handicapped and elderly individuals. Such guidelines at a minimum shall require:

(1) That all polling places shall be located

a. In any building or other facility which is or can be made accessible, by temporary ramp or otherwise, to individuals in wheelchairs on election days for all hours during which said polling places are used for the purpose of a state election; and

b. On the ground level of the building or other facility or at a location within such building or facility as is accessible by elevator; and

(2) That all places of registration shall be located

a. In any building or other facility which is or can be made accessible by temporary ramp or otherwise to individuals in wheelchairs for all hours during which said places of registration are used for the purpose of a state election; and

b. On the ground level of the building or other facility or at a location within such building or facility as is accessible by elevator.

(b) The requirements of subsection (a) of this section shall not apply to registration places located in private residences or to temporary places of registration designated or used by deputy or assistant registrars on a one-time or occasional basis; provided, however, that comparable registration procedures and/or registration places which comply with the guidelines are available to handicapped and elderly individuals.

(c) No provision of this article shall be deemed to constitute legal justification for decreasing or failing to increase, the number of places provided for voter registration or the number of polling places.

(a) The appropriate election officials in the several counties of this state shall make available registration and voting aids for handicapped and elderly individuals in state elections. These aids shall include, but are not limited to:

(1) Instructions, printed in large type, conspicuously displayed at each voter registration site and polling place, sufficient to provide hearing impaired and seriously visually impaired individuals with adequate information as to how and where they may register and vote.

(2) Paper ballots, available at each polling place, for the use of voters who would otherwise be prevented from voting because of their inability to operate a voting machine.

(3) Absentee ballots, available to any handicapped or elderly individual who, because of handicap or age, is unable to go to the polling facility in a state election. The deadlines for requesting and submitting an absentee ballot under this subsection shall not be earlier than the latest deadlines prescribed by law for other persons voting by absentee ballot.

(4) The opportunity for any handicapped or elderly individual who, because of handicap or age, requires assistance in casting a vote, to select a person of his or her choice to accompany such individual into the polling place to assist in the casting of the vote.

(b) The appropriate election officials of each county shall issue public notice in each voting precinct of the requirement for and the availability of these registration and voting aids, which notice shall be notification for all handicapped and elderly individuals. This notice shall be issued as early as practicable, but in any case not later than 60 days before any state election or the registration deadline for such election.

(a) Whenever the Attorney General of this state has reason to believe that

(1) A registration or polling place does not comply with the standards prescribed under subsection (a) of Section 21-4-23; or

(2) A county has failed to provide registration and voting aids as required by Section 21-4-23, the Attorney General may institute, in the name of the state, an action in the Circuit Court of Montgomery County against the county, for injunctive relief, as may be necessary to implement this article.

(b) Whenever an individual has reason to believe that

(1) A registration or polling place does not comply with the standards prescribed under subsection (a) of Section 21-4-23; or

(2) A county has failed to provide registration and voting aids as required by Section 21-4-23, and that individual is personally aggrieved or is acting on behalf of an individual personally aggrieved by failure of the county to comply with this article, that individual may institute an action in the local circuit court against the county, for injunctive relief, as may be necessary to implement this article.

The State Fire Marshal shall prescribe and publish standards and specifications for the buildings, premises and facilities to which this article applies, which will make such buildings accessible to and functional for the physically disabled who are confined to wheelchairs and to those ambulating on braces or crutches, or both, or on canes, to the blind and to the deaf. Such standards and specifications may be based on the American National Standards Institute specifications, as heretofore or hereafter amended. Such standards and specifications shall apply to building features such as the width of halls and doorways, and the construction of stairs, the installation of ramps, the installation of other equipment and accessories to aid the handicapped, the location and installation of equipment and accessories for the buildings such as public telephones, fire alarms, toilet rooms, lights, heat and ventilation controls or switches, elevator signals and similar items of frequent or essential use. They shall require both visual and audible warning devices to warn the deaf and blind as well as the public generally of possible hazards. They shall also apply to the grading of the lots on which any building to which this article applies are located and to walks and parking areas accessible to such buildings.

(a) The standards and specifications prescribed by the fire marshal, as authorized in this article, shall apply to all buildings and facilities used by the public which are constructed in whole or in part by the use of state, county or municipal funds, or the funds of any political subdivision of the state. All such buildings and facilities constructed in this state after October 10, 1975, from any one of these funds or any combination thereof shall conform to each of the standards and specifications prescribed therein, and also any standards and specifications prescribed as supplementary thereto, as authorized in Section 21-4-6.

(b) Such standards and specifications shall be adhered to in those buildings and facilities under construction on October 10, 1975, unless a written waiver thereof is issued pursuant to Section 21-4-5. If the authority responsible for the construction determines that the construction has reached a state where compliance is impractical, and applies to the fire marshal or the director of the building commission for a waiver, such officer or officers shall issue the requested waiver.

(a) The State Fire Marshal and the director of the State Building Commission are each hereby authorized to construe and interpret the standards and specifications prescribed as authorized in this article.

(b) Each of such officers is hereby authorized, with the concurrence of the other, to grant a waiver of a particular standard or specification upon proper application therefor, when in their joint opinion, following the specification or standard would be unreasonably costly and impractical, or that an alternative facility is already reasonably available.

(a) The responsibility for reviewing architectural plans and specifications for buildings to which this article applies shall be as follows:

(1) Where state school funds are utilized, the State Board of Education and the State Building Commission.

(2) Where other state funds are utilized, the State Building Commission.

(3) Where funds of counties, municipalities or other political subdivisions are utilized, the governing bodies thereof and the State Building Commission.

(b) Each such reviewing authority is hereby authorized to adopt and enforce rules and regulations prescribing additional standards based on standards prescribed by the American National Standards Institute for making buildings and facilities accessible to and functional for the physically handicapped.

The State Fire Marshal is charged with the duty of enforcing standards and specifications prescribed as authorized in Section 21-4-3. For such purpose, he shall have the same power and authority to inspect buildings, facilities and premises to which this article applies that he has relative to buildings which might constitute fire hazards. If he finds that any building to which this article applies does not comply with the applicable standards and specifications duly prescribed and published pursuant to Section 21-4-3, he shall immediately order the same to be conformed to such standards and specifications. Such order may be appealed and enforced in the same manner prescribed for appealing and enforcing the Fire Marshal's orders relative to the elimination of fire hazards.