ADA Compliance
Vitruvian Planning’s staff has worked in the realm of ADA compliance for more than 15 years. Don Kostelec led one of the United States’ largest ADA Transition Plans for the Ada County Highway District in 2005. Since then, our efforts in this realm have helped take cities and highway agencies beyond the basic requirements of ADA compliance to make public right of way and public facilities safe and accessible.
Some of our most recent ADA compliance projects include:
- Lewiston, Idaho’s ADA Transition Plan: This plan was formulated while coordinating data collection efforts with city staff. The public outreach component took meetings directly to people with disabilities. We met them in various community locations that were convenient and accessible.
- Barber Valley Neighborhood Accessibility Assessment: Vitruvian Planning supported the Idaho Access Project on evaluating this area of southeast Boise to help inform the City and other agencies on how to better incorporate the needs of people with disabilities in design of subdivisions, commercial developments, sidewalks, roundabouts, and pathways. This included exploration of smartphone apps to assist in wayfinding at critical junctures.
- Boise State University Wayfinding Master Plan: We convened a group of people with disabilities–including wheelchair users, people who are blind or vision-impaired, and people who are deaf and hard of hearing—to help the university design a campus-wide wayfinding system that is accessible to visitors, students, faculty, and staff.
- University City, Missouri, and Pleasant Hill, Iowa, ADA Transition Plans: Vitruvian provided subconsultant assistance to formulated these plans, providing technical support on staff and contractor training, self assessment tasks, route prioritization, and providing access in construction zones.
Beyond training and facilitating the understanding of ADA compliance from a technical standpoint, we are helping communities explore ways to incorporate digital technology into ADA compliance, by identifying smart phone apps and smart glasses interfaces that help people with disabilities better navigate their environment. We are also exploring how the increase in people with autism will impact how the built environment is designed to safely address their needs and understand how people with autism experience things like street crossings and shared use pathways.
Other specialty work in ADA compliance includes:
- Contractor training on work zone access
- Review of city standards and specifications
- Safety audits
- Project-specific compliance review