Rich Gigl from National / Azon discussed ADA signage at the 2025 IRgA Workshop
Did you know that one-half of one percent of a typical construction project’s budget is for signage? That might not sound like much, but in the big picture, that’s a lot of money! Grabbing some of that money by doing ADA signage was the focus of the first session during the 2025 IRgA Workshop in Arlington, Virginia two weeks ago.
The ADA signage topic was led by Rich Gigl, president of National / Azon. Gigl explained that when a general contractor or project owner puts out a request for bids for the ADA signage portion of a project, the number of bidders is usually quite low, and a local bidder – who can turn the signage around quickly – often has the advantage over a national company.
“ADA signage – braille – is required in all open-to-the-public buildings,” Gigl explained. “So nearly every new project has some required ADA signage, so there’s huge demand for shops that can do the work quickly. General contractors don’t like to deal with the signage portion of a building, so if you can show that you can handle it, they are happy to work with you.”
ADA signage differs from regular signage in significant ways, Gigl explained. The contrast between the background and the type must be up to standards; the lettering must be raised; and it needs to include the same message in braille. And that’s just the beginning – other specifications regarding colors, placement and durability must also be met, and those may vary depending on state or municipality.
The bottom line is this: A reprographics shop that can effectively make ADA signage can profit from it, especially since it is typically sold to the client base reprographics shops have worked with forever.
There are four technologies that can make braille – laser engraving, UV printing, photopolymer and raster braille. For most applications, the leading technologies are UV and raster braille, sometimes in combination, Gigl explained. Mutoh and DCS share a patent fo
A demonstration of the Vision Systems router/engraver
r the UV braille printing technology, and Vision Systems makes the raster braille system that National / Azon represents.
Gigl said the Vision Systems braille equipment is the “gold standard” for making ADA signage. Two attendees at the workshop who use the Vision Systems equipment confirmed that it has worked well in their businesses and that it’s highly dependable.
Gigl added that the Vision Systems equipment can also make signage that is ideal for high-profit projects such as the countless little plastic signs needed for plumbing work, electrical installations, data centers, and other technical build-outs. These jobs fall under the radar of many sign shops, but GCs need them done, and since they are often customized to the specific job, a local reprographer is preferred over a national provider.
His presentation concluded with an online demo of the Vision Systems VR-48 engraver/router conducted from the Vision Systems headquarters in Phoenix. The demo showed how the software easily converts text to braille information and drives the equipment to make compliant ADA signage.
In the next edition of IRgA Today, we’ll discuss the presentation of HP’s new AI vectorization system and Joseph Szobody’s seminar on tapping the municipal market.
Attendees look at media available for making ADA signage