Dear Colleagues
Access Ready Inc. is reaching out to ask for your support regarding a recent change to the National Fire Protection Association (“NFPA”) fire code that we believe could significantly and unintentionally impact Americans with disabilities.
For more than 25 years, multifamily communities across the country have offered “door-to-door” trash collection, allowing residents to place household waste in approved receptacles outside their apartment doors for same-day collection. Today, this service benefits an estimated twenty million residents across every state in America. While convenient for all residents, it is especially important for people with disabilities, particularly those with mobility, sensory, and cognitive limitations, who may have difficulty transporting or locating trash over long distances to centralized dumpsters or compactors.
In September 2026, the NFPA published new code language that would prohibit door-to-door trash collection in multifamily buildings unless they are fully sprinklered. While we strongly support appropriate fire-safety standards, we believe this restriction unnecessarily eliminates an important accessibility service that supports the independent living of people with disabilities and the elderly.
Door-to-door trash collection has been widely used for decades and has never been associated with a documented fire. Existing NFPA standards also address hallway clearance and safe egress. Meanwhile, retrofitting older buildings with comprehensive sprinkler systems can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, meaning many property owners will simply eliminate door-to-door service. It may also mean raising rents to cover the cost of such improvements if they choose to follow that path.
If state and local governments adopt the new NFPA provision, we estimate that nearly 1,000,000 (one million) residents with disabilities and the elderly could lose access to this service. For these residents, carrying trash to a distant collection point may increase the risk of injury, require assistance from others, or require paying someone to perform a basic household task. We believe this raises serious accessibility concerns and, at a minimum, violates the spirit of the Americans with Disabilities Act and other disability protections.
We ask that you and/or your organization, as an advocate and leader in the disability rights community, help us push back against adopting the 2027 Edition of NFPA 101, the Life Safety Code. We believe this new code will negatively impact the independent living, health, housing availability, and quality of life of disabled and elder populations.
Click here to view the letter that Access Ready will send to the National Fire Protection Association.
To show your support, please email Doug Towne
Subject: Pushing back against the 2027 Edition of NFPA 101, the Life Safety Code
Your name and organization will be added to the bottom of the letter.
Please also share this information with any organization or other concerned individuals you work with, and ask them to support this advocacy effort. While this may not fall directly into your organizational or personal concerns, we believe it will affect people with all types of disabilities as a whole.
Access Ready Inc will provide a copy of the letter to the NFPA as the signatures in support build. Our appeal simply asks the NFPA to eliminate the new prohibition and return to the standards adopted only three years ago, which allowed door-to-door collection subject to appropriate fire-safety and egress requirements.
Time is of the essence, as state and local jurisdictions could begin adopting the new NFPA language. We believe we can protect both fire safety and accessibility without eliminating a service that provides meaningful independence for people with disabilities and the elderly.
Thank you for your consideration and for your advocacy on behalf of people with disabilities and the elderly.
If I can answer any questions, please contact me by phone or email.
Appreciatively,
Douglas George Towne (Doug)
Chair and Chief Executive Officer
Access Ready Inc. – Inclusion Can’t Wait!
727-452-8132
