Equal Access: Taking it to the streets Andrew C. Lemer, Ph.D. Senior Program Officer Transportation Research Board, Washington, D.C. Member, APWA Engineering and Technology Committee nlike the mythical community of Lake Wobegon—where, as Garrison Keillor tells us, all the men are strong, all the women are good-looking, and all the children are above average—more than one of every ten people in our towns and cities contends with a disability, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. [1] Nearly half of these people, some 19 million nationwide, need a wheelchair, crutches, cane, or otherwise fall into the Bureau’s category of those with “ambulatory difficulty.” About 20 percent have uncorrectable vision difficulties. Such disabilities can make crossing the street or getting out of a parked car a daunting ordeal. The people who are responsible for finding ways to accommodate the special needs of this segment of the community—with a local government’s limited resources for planning, designing, constructing, operating and maintaining public rights-of-way, roads, and other pedestrian-serving infrastructure facilities—face quite a challenge. Getting to where we are Of course, understanding the laws and regulations that influence the choices is a part of the challenge, and they are changing. Public works officials can expect soon to see a new set of federal guidelines. This latest change starts with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Signed into law in 1990, the ADA gave civil rights protections to individuals with disabilities similar to those given to individuals on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin, age, and religion, 42 APWA Reporter
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guaranteeing equal opportunity in public accommodations, employment, transportation, state and local government services, and telecommunications. Contentious from its origins, the legislation gave rise to litigation as the broad social goal of equal opportunity collided with the narrowly imposed costs of altering buildings, retrofitting equipment, and changing regulatory standards and procedures to meet the law’s requirements. Amendments to the ADA enacted in 2008 broadened the law’s protections. The Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board (Access Board), established in 1972, is responsible under ADA, the earlier Architectural Barriers Act, and several other federal laws for developing guidelines to ensure that buildings, transportation vehicles, and telecommunications equipment covered by these laws are accessible and usable by people with disabilities. Following ADA’s passage, the Board in 1992 published in the Federal Register a notice of proposed rulemaking that was to cover accessible pedestrian facilities and other aspects of public rights-of-way. However, public agencies and others in the transportation community expressed substantial concerns during the multiyear review process, and the Board chose not to include these facilities when the final rule was issued early in 1998. Frequently mentioned among the transportation community’s concerns was the likely impact on smaller governments’ budgets of having to install curb ramps and other special features retroactively at every
street intersection and pedestrian crosswalk. The Board then created an advisory committee and began an extensive series of discussions with a wide range of stakeholders. APWA participated actively in the committee’s activities. The committee issued its report and recommendations to the Board in January 2001. In June 2002, the Board released draft guidelines on accessible public rights-of-way, making the guidelines available for public comment. Another round of revisions ensued and the Board issued revised guidelines, still not adopted as regulatory requirements, in November 2005. Following a mandatory assessment of the impacts of the guidelines on state and local governments, the Board’s notice of proposed rulemaking appeared July 2011. The period for public comment closed in February 2012. The extraordinarily long comment period was a result of extensions requested by the National Association of Counties, the National League of Cities, the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the American Council of Engineering Companies. Diane Linderman, APWA President, presented the Association’s views at one of the two public meetings the Board held during the comment period, urging the Board to allow local governments flexibility in meeting accessibility requirements. Enforcing equal rights laws, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) established the idea of “reasonable accommodation” as a standard for
