Agenda - Public Works Committee - 08/21/2018

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NOTICE OF AVAILABILITY OF DRAFT PUBLIC RIGHTS -OF -WAY ACCESSIBILITY GUIDELINES The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) recognizes and protects the civil rights of people with disabilities and is modeled after earlier landmark laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race and gender. To ensure that buildings and facilities are accessible to and usable by people with disabilities, the ADA establishes accessibility requirements for State and local government facilities, places of public accommodation, and commercial facilities. Under the ADA, the Access Board has developed and continues to maintain design guidelines for accessible buildings and facilities known as the ADA Accessibility Guidelines (ADAAG). ADAAG covers a wide variety of facilities and establishes minimum requirements for new construction and alterations. The Board maintains a similar responsibility for accessibility guidelines under the Architectural Barriers Act (ABA). The ABA requires access to certain facilities designed, built, altered, or leased with Federal funds. Like ADAAG, the Board's ABA accessibility guidelines apply to new construction and alterations. The Board's guidelines become enforceable when they are adopted by the standard setting agency for the ADA and the ABA. The agencies responsible for standards under the ADA are the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Transportation (DOT). The agencies responsible for standards under the ABA are the General Services Administration (GSA), the Depaitinent of Defense (DOD), the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the United States Postal Service (USPS). The Board plans to undertake rulemaking to supplement its ADA and ABA accessibility guidelines, which primarily cover facilities on sites, by adding new provisions specific to public rights -of -way. The Board's aim is to ensure that access for persons with disabilities is provided wherever a pedestrian way is newly built or altered, and that the same degree of convenience, connection, and safety afforded the public generally is available to pedestrians with disabilities. The guidelines would not require alterations to existing public rights -of -way, but would apply where a pedestrian route or facility is altered as part of a planned project to improve existing public rights -of -way. BACKGROUND The Need for Guidelines on Public Rights -of -Way Local jurisdictions, and other entities covered by the ADA or ABA, must ensure that the facilities they build or alter are accessible to people with disabilities. The Board's ADA and ABA accessibility guidelines specify the minimum level of accessibility in new construction and alteration projects and serve as the basis for enforceable standards maintained by other agencies. Currently, the Board's guidelines, like the industry standards from which they derive, focus mainly on facilities on sites. While they address certain features common to public sidewalks, such as curb ramps, accessible routes, ground and floor surfaces, and bus stops and shelters, further guidance is necessary to address conditions unique to public rights -of -way. Various 1