Good day, ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to Part 3: Bringing It All Together: Transitions Plans, Barrier Removal Plans and Action Plans" conference call. At this time all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later we will conduct question and answer session and instructions will be given at that time. If anyone should require assistance during the conference you may press star and zero on a touch tone phone. As a reminder this conference is being recorded. I would like to introduce your host for today''s conference, Peter Berg of Great Lakes ADA center. Please begin, sir.
Thank you very much, Operator. Welcome to everyone, to the March ADA Audio Conference Series. The ADA Audio Conference program is a project of the ADA National Network. The ADA National Network is funded by the U.S. Department of Education, National Institute on Disability Rehabilitation and Research (NIDRR). We''re going to go through some introductory slides here quickly so we can turn it over to our speakers today who have a lot of great information to provide to you as we wrap up the third and final session in this three-part series. The audio for today''s session is being provided by telephone and for those in accessing through the webinar platform are getting the sound through your computer. If you''re having any sound issues in the webinar room, you can run the audio set-up wizard to make sure that your audio configurations are set to receive the sound for today''s session. The Blackboard Collaborate has a mobile app that is available through the iTunes store through Google Play and also through Amazon. Those can be downloaded and mobile devices can access the session. There is limited accessibility available through the mobile apps. Captioning is not supported at this time through any of the platforms with the mobile apps and there are some limitations in terms of access for voiceover and the screen reader programs using the mobile apps. Captioning for today''s session is provided in the webinar room and that icon can be clicked in the webinar room and resized to fit specific needs as well as the captioning transcript can be saved by participants who just need to double-click the captioning icon within the webinar room to access that feature. Questions can be submitted for today''s session for those participants on the telephone, when we get to that portion of the presentation we will bring the operator back and she will give instructions on how participants can ask questions. For those in the webinar room, questions can be submitted in the chat area. You can click on that area or you can control-M to enter your question there. While you will not see your question posted, the question is viewable by today''s presenters. The view within the webinar platform can be customized. You can customize the whiteboard where the PowerPoint presentation is being displayed. That can be resized. And that can be done by clicking the icon to the top and to the left of the whiteboard. The other views within the webinar room can also be customized. The chat panel, participant panel, as well as the audio/visual panels can be customized and be detached and made smaller or larger and they can be moved around. You can use the icon within the upper right corner of each of those panels to move them around. There are by default certain audio and visual notifications that take place within the Blackboard Collaborate, those preferences -- those visual and audible notifications can be turned off and that can be done under the edit menu. You can click on that and go to preferences and go down to audio and visual and the different -- the various preferences can be checked or unchecked and then select "apply" and then you will avoid seeing those visual notifications or hearing those audible notifications. For screen reader users, those can be done within the activity window, control + slash opens up the activity window using screen readers and those preferences can be turned on and off within that activity window. For any technical assistance during today''s session, within the webinar platform you can click on the Great Lakes within the participant list and send a private message to the moderators. Emails can be sent to webinars@ada-audio.org or we can be reached by calling 877-232-1990. Alright, it is time to turn it over for, as I said, the third in our session in the three-part series and at that time I would like to turn it over to Irene Bowen and Jim Terry. Their full bios can be found on the ADA audio home page, www.ada-audio.org, Irene, welcome.
Thank you, Peter. Thank you, everyone for being here our loyal fans who stuck with us too and now the third session as well as those of you who are just joining us. I''m Irene Bowen with ADA One, I''m a consultant. I focus on ADA and section 504 issues. I was formerly with the Department of Justice as well as the Access Board and with me again is Jim Terry with Evan Terry Associates, an architect and one of the most knowledgeable people you will find about the Americans with Disabilities Act and other architectural issues. We want to remind you again that we''re not providing legal advice and that if you do need that, you should definitely consult your own attorney. So we''ve done two sessions so far. The first one was How to get started and the process of Self-Evaluations and/or transition plan or if you''re a Title three entity a barrier removal plan. Last time we tried to give you practical information about how do you approach a self-evaluation. This session is "Bringing It All Together: How to do an action plan, transition plan, and barrier removal plan." So this is, once you have gathered information and you''ve evaluated your strong points and weak points what do you do about it? How do you move forward? How do you take action? We have a few slides that sum up where we''ve been, to refresh your recollection. The goal, if you remember, is compliance. The most important thing is that your entity is complying with the ADA. What is less important is that you follow precisely the requirements for self-evaluations and transition plans that you do them at certain intervals, et cetera, because the goal of those as well is to bring you into compliance. That is our overall goal. In reaching compliance, don''t forget to read the regulations and the requirements. The first rule is "read the rules." And the Department of Justice regulations will tell you what is required of a sum evaluation as well as a transition plan and there is guidance about barrier removal plans. So the two areas that we''ve been examining are equal opportunity and physical access. The area of equal opportunity is the one that I am focusing on, and the physical access area is the one that Jim will talk about today. And the reason I wanted to go over this again is just to emphasize that when talking about program accessibility that is a question of physical accessibility. We''re looking to be sure that you''re not discriminating against anyone because of the lack of access, physical access to your facilities, your buildings and equipment. And other than that, we also use the term "policies and practices." That''s what you''re evaluating in the first area when trying to determine if you''re providing equal opportunity, which is an overarching requirement of the ADA. Under that we include everything else besides program accessibility, communications, all types of policies and practices. And remember you are not always making physical changes to achieve program accessibility. If you do need to make physical changes, that''s when you do a transition plan. We''ll a little more on those two approaches in a minute. We talked last time about critical decisions that you have to make. And if you made those decisions as to what type of approach you''re going to have, whether you''re going to do this electronically with a checklist to interviews, a narrative report, whether and how you''re going to use consultants, how much you''re going to do yourself, then you''ve worked through the stages of the self-evaluation and you''re ready to go now to do the transition plan or the barrier removal plan or, as we call it, as a result of the self-evaluation and an action plan to address policies and practices. So the action plan will build on those critical decisions that you made earlier. And the type of report that you do and the action plan that you do will often relate to the type of questioning that you did during the gathering of information. But it doesn''t have to. For example, the type of analysis that you did may have been by programs. You may have evaluated each individual program, which in fact is what you should do according to the regulations. But you may want to do the action plan by department. You may need to make sure the action plan made available to the public to be -- to set out what each department is going to do and then you may also want to have action steps set out that state what the city or the county or the state, for example, as a whole will be going to do. But keep in mind that if you didn''t gather information by program, you''re not going to be able to report by program or to do an action plan by program. Then you''re going to have to do it by department or overall by the entity as a whole. So it''s pretty simple what your tasks are, the things to do are, that you''re going to draft recommendations. You may want the department to draft parts that relate just to the department. Then you should meet with them to let them know what the recommendations are, get their feedback. You may want to do it from a bottom-up approach and have the departments draft their own proposals and then use ADA coordinator, for example, will pull those together and meet with them again, but you do need to have feedback going in both directions. Then at some point, as we mentioned, you do have to have public input and it''s a great idea to get it at several points. This would be another point which you might want to get public input by hosting the action plan and getting input through your website or by having meetings again with interested groups. Then eventually you will come up with your final plan and make that available to the public. So I mentioned that there are a number of ways to develop the action plan. A number of ways to organize it and I''ve listed some of them here. You can do it by any of these ways or a combination. And I think what you''ll find most often and the way that I usually do it is by addressing the issues that are common to most departments or most programs and having a plan to approach those. And then separately where the need is there, set out the things that each department will do. So these are some of the ways you can organize your action plan. Other ways would be by timing. For example, during the first six months we''re going to do this, and then in the next year we''re going to do this, et cetera. Or if you have a phased evaluation, if you evaluated certain programs over the period of six months and then gone on to do other specialized programs, for example, then you may want to organize it in that way. So generally I think what most people do is they address both the policy changes that are sort of centralized and would apply across the board, as well as procedures and training and then set out department-specific action steps. So, for example, if you''re setting out the centralized changes, you might include things like we''re going to establish a -- we''re going to improve policy for obtaining interpreters. We''re going to be sure that we only require a certain amount of notice for interpreters, that we train certain people, security officers, for example, about the questions they can ask about service animals, et cetera, and then drill down to the department-specific action steps. And what about facilities? I mentioned that if you are making changes to facilities, those go in the transition plan. But keep in mind that there are a lot of policy-related issues that you really should address in the action plan, separate from the transition plan. So, for example, Jim will be talking about administrative methods of providing access separately from making physical changes to a facility. So those would include providing assistance or moving services, basically. But please keep in mind that these are a little bit harder to do from an administrative basis if you don''t have enough accessible facilities. So, for example, if you decide that one thing you''re going to do is to have a central repository of accessible space, a central booking location, let''s say, so that you offer online a means for people to book accessible spaces for meetings, then you have to -- that requires a process. So you would need to have centralized booking. You would need for people to be aware of that process; you need to make sure you have enough accessible spaces. Those things would go in the action plan, although they of course would overlap with the transition plan. And the goal is, I think in the best of all possible worlds, almost all facilities would be accessible so you do not have to go to the trouble of using those administrative methods. Nonetheless, they are allowed and you are not required to make changes to facilities if you can use other methods to achieve program accessibility. And one example of the kind of thing that should go in an action plan, not just in a transition plan, is maintaining accessible features. You see a lift here and there''s a little yellow sticky and you see a close-up of it. You probably could have guessed what that said, "Out of order." Because lifts sometimes breakdown. So it''s important for people to know what the process is for, number one, monitoring accessible equipment, such as lifts and elevators, automatic doors, and monitoring sidewalks, checking for cracks in sidewalks, like we''ve acquired in most of our cities over this winter. Checking for clear space at doors and in restaurant stalls, et cetera, and making sure they''re working right, that there is nothing that has rendered them inaccessible. Those are the kind of things that should go in the action plan. How are you going to inspect and monitor accessible features? How will any problems be reported and then what kind of time frame should they be fixed? So the kinds of action steps that will typically be in an action plan are, for example, the first two slides. Excuse me (coughing). These first two slides address centralized types of steps. So you might direct all staff in the action plan to discontinue practices that you already identified are discriminatory and have a pretty severe impact on people with disabilities. And these can be called red flags. So the ADA coordinator can get that message out. You can set it out specifically in the action plan. There are certain things that people need to stop doing already if they are doing. Then you can also, as one of the centralized approaches, create and publicize -- create if you don''t have it already -- notice of non-discrimination, tell people who the ADA coordinator is and establish grievance procedures. These are the kinds of things I hope you have done a long time ago, but if not, now is the time to do these or make them very clear. Other action steps, it''s helpful often for a city, county or state, for example, to develop an administrative order or use whatever mechanism is the one that your entity uses to set out exactly what are the responsibilities of the coordinator. What are the responsibilities of the department liaisons? And then how do you obtain interpreters, accessible space, et cetera? What are the processes? And what are the forms that you use for making decisions about something being a fundamental alteration to a program or undue financial burden, how do you monitor activities of your contractors, et cetera? So those all could be in one administrative order if that is how you do business. Otherwise there should be some way of communicating those and you should set out in your action plan that that is what you will be tackling. Another type of action step which wouldn''t relate to everyone but might relate to people in certain departments or only in one, perhaps, are training emergency responders about interacting with people with disabilities, training staff to assist people if they come into a large building and don''t know where to go and training all staff, probably, on how to use telecommunication relay services. And then once you come up with your action plan, it''s really important to track responsibilities and to stay on task to be sure that you accomplish what you set out to do. So I mentioned last time that there were some program management tools that can be used for this purpose, and I just wanted to name a few of them. This is not any kind of endorsement, but these are ones I''ve looked into and can be helpful. These are the ones I was mentioning be you can assign a task and then you set to remind individuals by email six months out, three months out, whatever time frame you set, that their deadline is coming up and then they can put into the project management stuff where when they met that deadline, you can share documents, et cetera. So the first two sound like they''re a lot of fun because they''re called -- the first one is base camp. The second one is freed, F-R-E-E-D camp. Both project management tools. And then ZOLO projects is another. Then finally, Huddle. You may have that kind of software already, especially if you''re a large entity, so I would encourage you to investigate and see if that''s something you can use. Then this is one way of ensuring accountability, but you should see what mechanisms you have internally to do that. I always suggest that you make compliance with the ADA part of the job description, just like non-discrimination on other basis is part of most people''s job descriptions. And then fund the follow-up. Make sure you have funds in the budget for people to ensure compliance. And we are going to skip questions for now and hold them for the end and turn this over to you, Jim.
Okay. We''re going to be looking at the transition planning process and how to achieve program access. We''re also going to look at a few of the other facility requirements that may have slipped through the cracks if you''ve been focusing purely on program access. So, two slides just to kind of put it in perspective and then we''ll get into the details. When do the program access requirements apply under title II? Oh, one other aside because this is an audio conference, most of the people participating today are not seeing the slides. I''m going to be reading the content on the slides or modifying a little bit, but if you want to go back to it, you can see the slides and download those from the archive so you''ll have a record of that. So when do the program access requirements apply? They are related to physical access and they apply in addition to the requirements for new construction and alterations and in addition to self-evaluation requirements they are -- when you''re not doing any new construction or alterations there''s still an obligation to remove barriers to program access. Now one of the things to be careful about is people are typically thinking that barrier removal is a Title III responsibility for private entities. And barrier removal under Title III is the obligation to remove barriers where it''s readily achievable. That''s different from Title II. In Title II when I talk about removing barriers, we''re talking about removing barriers to program access. There''s a difference in why you''re removing a particular barrier and when you have to do it, but you still have that obligation in your existing facilities as well as if you have some issues in new facilities that have been recently constructed, if you''ve got a program access problem, then you still have to deal with those as well. So how do you achieve program access? You either provide programs, services or activities in accessible places so that your program, when seen as a whole is accessible, but you have to be careful about distance, convenience and integration. Or you remove the barriers in those areas that people with disabilities need to go to participate in your program''s activities or services. So those are two options to go to a place that is already accessible or to remove barriers in the inaccessible places. Or you provide program access using alternative methods. We''re a little ahead of ourselves. So program access is more flexible than the standards and so you may be required to do more than just pure standards. For example, exterior doors, under the ADA standards, have no limitation on the force. But if you have, for instance, the main door to the City Hall and it''s a big heavy ornate door and people with disabilities have a difficulty getting that open, you probably will have to install an automatic door opener or provide directional information about how to get to a door that is accessible that''s open at the same time the main door is or something like that. So there is one of those cases where program access may require more than standards. You may need more accessible parking spaces than required by the standard. If you have a Senior Citizens Center that the accessible spaces are always full. You may need to come back in and restripe additional accessible spaces so that the people who do have limitations in their ability to walk distances or who need an access aisle to be able to offload to a chair or scooter, that they have the ability to do that close to the entrance rather than having to go to a more remote space that might be open. So, again, you have to look at when are you providing program access? Typically when you do your initial assessment you''re looking based on the standards, but that doesn''t mean you''re only limited to only the things that the standards require. Program access does not require you to take actions that would change the fundamental nature of the program. So, for instance, if you''re a school system and you have a regular football program and you have somebody that wants to play tackle football but they use a scooter or power chair, you know, that would really fundamentally alter the nature of tackle football. That''s not to say that you might not have a separate program for athletes with disabilities, but that would be a fundamental alter to the nature of the football program. So you don''t have to do that. You don''t have to take steps that would cause an undue financial and administrative burden but that decision has to be made at the top of the organization. When somebody looks at the entire budget and it''s a higher obligation than the readily achievable one under Title III. Undue financial and administrative burden is a difficult hurdle to get over if you''re saying; well we don''t have to make that program accessible. So those are few of the things that you need to think about in putting the plan into perspective. Now we''re going to look at the details of the transition plan. The first category we''ll do an overview of the requirements of the law for physical and program access; Second, we''ll look at the breadth and scope of the coverage of transition plan.; Third, types of physical barriers that we''re typically finding and seeing in transition plans; Fourth, some alternative methods; Fifth, what do you have to include in your accessibility transition plan?; Six, which standards do you choose when you''re doing your assessment?; Seventh, logical approaches to providing program access in a transition plan, in the transitioning planning process; Eighth, facilities selection for program access, how do you decide which facilities are going to be the ones where you provide program access if not all facilities will be made accessible?; And ninth, surveying facilities for program access, that''s a complicated process, time-consuming process; Tenth, information that you need in order to manage that process to start it and run it all the way through; Eleventh, barrier prevention and monitoring methods, so you don''t keep digging yourself further in a hole. And then how you stay out of the hole once you''ve gotten out; Twelfth, what about leased facilities? Thirteenth, transition planning practicalities, what are some of the things you need to look at to make it work? Fourteen, how do you fund the work? Obviously we''re not going to have a whole lot of time to address these in detail, but we want to at least consider all these when looking at an overview of transition planning. So first, an overview of the requirements for physical or program access: A. New construction that commenced after January 26, 1992 had to comply with the new construction standards in effect at the time, the 1991 ADA standards. Alterations commenced after January 26th, of ''92 had to comply with the alteration requirements of the same ''91 standards. Again, you''ll notice that the terminology here is "commenced after" that date. The trigger points for new construction projects is different for Title III and Title II. Private entities had a different set of requirements for this trigger than public entities. Public entities had to start earlier. And that was because the uniform federal standards could have been used in that interim period while they were being written that the private entities had to follow. The third thing facilities where programs, activities and services take place, with very few exceptions, have to provide program access. So unaltered areas of existing facilities have to provide program access if that''s where their programs are going to be offered. Leased facilities and facilities controlled by others. You can''t look at just your own facilities when you''re deciding where you have to provide program access. So the second category here is the typical breadth of the facility types covered. Now, this is not an exhaustive list. If you''re looking at the slides, you can see that they''re labeled A-C. So when I hit Z, there are lots of other facility types that would be covered. But the types of things, city halls, town halls, administrative centers, courthouses, jails, prisons, detention centers, police stations, fire stations, sheriffs'' departments, polling places, parking decks, healthcare, delivery centers, child care centers, teen activity centers, senior activity centers, emergency shelters, animal shelters, libraries, museums, fairgrounds, convention centers, auditoriums and theatres, baseball and football and all other sports facilities, stadiums, arenas, visitor centers, parks. Which may include public gardening, recreation centers, golf courses, ice skating rinks, public swimming and wedding pools, playgrounds, ball fields, bleachers, tennis centers, band shells, gazebos, marinas, fishing facilities, nature trails shared used paths. Air ports, public transportation stops, transit stations, public rights of way elements, waste disposal and landfill facilities open to public use and all other public entity owned and/or controlled public facilities. That''s a long list and the reason I went through it is because a lot of people don''t realize the breadth of program types they''re offering or types of facilities that might be covered. We can do a similar list for a university, a public university. We could do similar lists for all types of other public entities, but the breadth of the coverage of facility types is everywhere the programs are offered. So now if you''ve got, for instance, a bus maintenance facility and the public is not allowed to go there, that''s not one where program access is provided -- where it''s required. That program is actually being delivered by the buses at the bus stops. But if that same facility has got a section where people are able to come in and board those buses when they start their route or mid route, then that part that the public uses, the program is being offered there. So, you know, if you have a telephone call center and the public can''t go in, like a 911 call center, that area, the service is being -- the program is being offered over the telephone lines, not inside the 911 facility. Once you start offering tours where people can maybe look through glass at the 911 operators, that''s a program that would have to be accessible on the tour route. So, again, we need to think broadly in terms of the facility types that are covered. Now, the types of physical obstacles listed most frequently in the Department of Justice Project Civic Access agreements are things like parking. Lots and lots of barrier types in parking. Curb ramps, routes from public transportations, accessible parking streets and/or sidewalks to accessible entrances, routes through the facilities, doors and door hardware, ramps and handrails, stairs and their handrails, elevator cabs and lobbies, platform lifts, restrooms, accessible plumbing fixtures and accessories; Showers and bathing facilities, dressing and locker rooms, which may or may not be associated with a shower or bathing facilities, alarms, signage. This is all of the required types of signage. Drinking fountains, telephones, service and ticket sales counters, concession stands, gift shops, wheelchair seating in assembly areas, access to stage and performing areas, assistive listening systems, libraries. So lots and lots of types of barriers that are covered, you can look through the standards to see what types of barriers are listed there and then look particularly now at the 2010 regulations, Title II regulations and you''ll find there are a lot of additional pieces in there. Just don''t look at the standards when deciding what your obligations are, because, for example, things like ticketing and additional seating for additional companions; those are listed in the regulations and not in the standards themselves. So let''s look at physical access versus alternative methods. Again, physical access is not required to every facility where alternative methods are as effective in providing program access but where structural changes are required then the transition plan is where those physical changes will be recorded. So some of the types of alternative methods that we''ll find for compliance in existing facilities might be, for instance, redesigning some equipment, redesigning services to accessible buildings, assigning aides to beneficiaries or providing home visits, delivery of services at alternative sites, alteration of existing facilities, construction of new, accessible facilities, use of accessible rolling stock or other conveyances to get -- provide accessibility to the things that are being offered. And then any other methods that achieve readily accessible to and usable by, that standard for people with disabilities. So, again, you''re not restricted to doing physical access. You can use alternative methods, but as Irene said earlier, be careful that those alternative methods may kind of raise the bar in communication and coordination effort between all of the people that are required to deliver your programs. They have to operate at a much higher level of awareness in order to make those alternative methods work over a long period of time. Now, if you know you''re getting ready to renovate a building in a couple years or a few years and you''re going to fix all the barriers then. You might want to use alternative methods in the meantime until you do that work and you''ve got the budget assigned to do that, but generally relying on alternative methods for long-term solutions to physical access is a difficult route to go. So some alternative methods -- all right, next slide. Regulatory requirements of what have to be included in a transition plan. If you look at the Title II regulations, you''ll see that it says you have to identify all the physical obstacles in the facilities that limit program access. We call those barriers to program access. The second thing you have to do in your transition plan is detail the methods that you''re going to use to make those facilities accessible so that you can deliver the programs. C, the third thing, is schedule that the steps are to be taken each year to achieve compliance. Who is responsible for implementation of this change? So what is the barrier, how are you going to fix it, what is the schedule, and who is responsible, those are the only literal requirements in the standards for your transition plan. That''s really not going to be sufficient for managing the process and so we''ll talk a little bit later about what the rest of the pieces of information that you might want to collect, but for now those are the four pieces you have to have. So to determine which barriers, physical access barriers affect program access or limit program access, you need to look at what standards you''re going to use. When you''re going through and identifying the barriers, are you going to use just the 2010 ADA standards? Are you going to use either the ''91 ADA standards or the Uniform Accessibility Standards for Safe Harbor? Because you do have to meet the ADA standards unless the element is Safe Harbored by one of those standards and complies prior to March 15, 2012, but you can use those Safe Harbors until you alter those elements. So you probably want to include at least those two in your analysis. You want to pick up state or local standards? A number of states have stricter requirements. Some, particularly in California, where you have things like lower reach ranges to accessories in a toilet room. You want to look for those kinds of things in doing your analysis and either flag them as being a state requirement or just refer to them as barriers that people in California expect won''t be there. So you want to look at the local standards. Do you want to look at things you''re required to do under the Rehabilitation Act, section 504, program access standard there, that required UFAS as your standard. Do you want to look at, for instance, public rights-of-way? The ADA standards really don''t work very well in many areas of the public right-of-way for a whole lot of reasons, primarily related to the slopes of streets and sidewalks, where the street itself is a steep street or has cross-slopes across it. So do you want to look at the proposed public rights of way guidelines that the Access Board has issued for public comment? Hopefully that will be out sometime this year in a final guideline, then it would have to be adopted before it would become mandatory, but that''s really going to be the easiest way to do assessment for program access and in my opinion the best way to do that rather than trying to use the ADA standards in public right-of-way. So shared use paths, places you might have pedestrians and bicycles and other mobility devices. Again, the Access Board are working on developing that and hopefully releasing that at the same time the public rights-of-way guidelines are released. So you can look at their proposed rule as you are looking at shared used paths in outside developed areas. Again, there''s no official standard in the ADA for outdoor developed areas, but there is one for the Barriers Act that applies to federally funded facilities. You might want to look at that if you''ve got parks and recreation trails, some of the types of areas not covered in section 10 of the 2010 ADA standards. So decide which standards you''re going to use as your identifying program access. Again, you have to provide program access to trails, but, again, there''s not a strict standard on it. If you go to the best guidance available which is what the Board put out for outdoor developed areas. It will at least give you an understanding of what program access might look like for those kinds of facilities. So we talked before about the logical approaches for identifying barriers that would go into your transition plan. The first one we talked about we''ll call it option A, is to identify every program that is offered and evaluate each program for barriers. So if you do that, then you have to chase every single program you offer as a public entity you have to chase it all the way through all over all the facilities where it is offered and you are going to do a lot of crisscrossing with other programs. It''s not an efficient way to work but it''s allowable. If you do it that way then you have to train all your employees to recognized and avoid the barriers you identify when you add programs and schedule public activities and events. You have to have a good handle on where the barriers are if you change anything, which you will change over the years. You also have to update your transition plans to your funding and eliminate barriers. Every time the program moves or is added to an inaccessible facility or area within a facility. So even though this was the way that the program access transition planning was conceived initially under the Rehab Act, what people found out was it''s not a very efficient way to work. So even though it''s allowed, what is more typically done is to follow what we''ll call "option B." Option B is to identify the areas in every facility where programs are offered. And then identify the barriers in those areas, so that you remove those and then train your program setting employees to schedule program services, activities and events only in the areas of the facility that are already physically accessible. Then you have to communicate where you have accessible facilities to those people who are doing the program setting and they can then follow that. Typically that''s floor plans or site plans or lists of information about where you have issues. Then you need to update your transition plan, get funding and eliminate barriers when programs move added to the few remaining inaccessible facilities or areas within the facilities that are not accessible. So if you follow either of those approaches, particularly the second approach, you''re going to select facilities where programs are going to be offered to achieve program access. So most public entities, larger public entities have multiple places where they offer their programs. So all you have to do is verify that those program services and activities are going to be accessible. If not in every location where they''re offered, then geographically dispersed at convenient locations. We talked about this some in the last session. So if you want to go back there and review, there''s a little more information there on this selection of facilities. But, again, if not all of them are going to be made accessible, you want to consider how some of these are used. For example, let''s say that you have two auditoriums in your -- under your control of where you''re offering programs. Because auditoriums may be scheduled at the same time, you probably have to make those both accessible, because, one, you never know who is going to show up in an auditorium with a disability. So you don''t have time to make one accessible. You typically are not going to get prior notice from who is coming to an event at an auditorium. Generally you''ll make those kinds of facilities all accessible. But if you have, for example, 20 swimming pool facilities, then some of those are going to have to be made accessible. And, for instance, where you have a program like a swim meet, you''re not going to be able to move a swim meet if you have a parent or grandparent or friend that wants to come and they can''t get poolside or wherever the spectators go, so your swim meets have to be held in the accessible pools. Swim lessons have to be at least offered at accessible pools that are reasonable distributed for convenience. So a lot of questions to consider in selecting what facilities and that could be an entire session. So we''ll drop that one and move on to the next one. The ninth is surveying facilities to identify physical obstacles or barriers that limit program access. This process is -- this is covered in other programs. I wanted to leave it in this session so that you remember this is a part of the transition planning process, but we''re not going to try to get into the details of how to survey facilities, because that takes a lot of additional time depending on what level of detail you get into it. It could be anywhere from another hour to a week or two. So additional information that is needed about each facility, each barrier and each solution you use to manage the process. And these go all the way through from early concept to the selection and identification of the things we''ve already talked about through identifying the barriers, managing removal of those barriers, communicating effectively to people what has been done, making decisions consistently and appropriately and then coordinating the implementation of it, all of those are things that require you to probably collect some more information if you can collect it all in the same place, then you''re going to have a much easier time in managing this. Some of the types of facility information that we typically see people collecting is, number one -- and this is the information -- facility information is something you collect once for the facility. You don''t have to tie it to every single barrier, but these are things that you collect. So what is the facility name? If you have a numerical identifier, what is that? Facility type, if you have a type of facility; the date of the initial occupancy and the last major renovation if you''ve done any there that''s a kind of thing you might want know to know which standard it was under; the address of the facility so people can find it easily later; who the ADA contact or coordinator at that facility is? This is typically the person that the surveyor worked with to determine where programs were offered in that facility and what types of programs were offered and how the space is used. What is that person''s phone number? What date the facility was actually surveyed to identify the barrier that had to be removed. Because if there''s any time lapse between the time the survey is done and the time of barrier removal is started, you may have new barriers. Some barriers may have been removed. There may have been an alteration project. That facility may have other types of changes. So you want know what date was the survey was actually done? Name and phone number of who did the ADA surveys because many of you may need to go back and find out, you said this, but I didn''t understand what does that mean. If you know who they are you can get the contact and get the information easily. Surveyor''s notes, you may want to have a field. If you''re doing this in the database, which we strongly recommend, about any difficulties that they encountered during the survey. For instance, was one wing under renovation or the basement had been flooded and we couldn''t get down there, or these rooms were blocked and we couldn''t get there, or whatever kind of difficulties you had, any questions that need to be answered before the facility is ready for inclusion in the final transition plan. So they told us this facility was going to be closed. Is that really true? Whatever. So some general notes about the facility. You want to have a place to identify those with the facility information. And then if desired, what spaces, features or elements of the facility are already accessible and need no further work. So if you go into a facility and you find out, hey, this is a brand-new facility and there''s really nothing here that limits program access, you might want to put that in this facility summary. It''s a positive flag to help people maybe schedule some programs into that facility if you find other problems in another one. You might want to have an executive summary of the physical barriers identified. Again, this facility form is not looking at all of the details of the barriers, but there are some people who, for instance, maybe a city council person or upper level administrator who might not have time to wade through all the details, but they might want to have some sort of summary so that when somebody from the public comes to them and has a problem, they can say, oh, yeah, I know about that, here is what we''re doing about it. So just a way to give people maybe a higher level of information. And generally we''ll have overall photographs of the facility for general reference. If you have a lot of facilities, that sometimes helps people not familiar with all of them to kind of get their head wrapped around, oh, yeah, I know the building and the photograph helps people visually be able to do that. And then after the physical barrier removal is complete, so that you''re providing program access, the date that the last barrier was removed, the name of whoever certified that the work was completed, their contact information and any general notes and exceptions. For example, well, we planned to do this, but when we got into it, we found out that that was not going to be workable because of whatever reason. Here is what we did instead for this building. Or we decided -- you know, general kind of notes reflecting those kinds of changes that typically happen from the initial expectations through the final work. So that''s just facility information that we typically see people collecting. Then there''s physical barrier information and this is what we typically see tagged -- well, not typically. When we''re doing it, we typically tag these for each of our projects, but other entities may select pieces of information and collect those and others may say, you know, we really don''t need that, so some things to think about. One is a unique barrier identification number. If you''re adjusting 200 door closers, you want to get to the right door. So when you fixed a particular door you want to be able to get back to that one. If you''ve got a unique barrier identification number that points you to that, then that''s a help. Another way to get that is the exact location of the physical barrier. Described in words and maybe marked on the floor or site plan or evacuation plan if you''ve got that for the building and don''t have floor plans. If you don''t have a site plan, you can use a Google Earth image and make notes on there. So you want to be able to flag people exactly where the particular barrier that you''re talking about is located so that your people can get back out there and fix the right one. The description of the existing condition that is noncompliant. Description of what is required for program access. References and figure numbers from the standards. One of the problems we see very, very often is that when the requirements are handed off or we''ve got this particular barrier, when that is handed off to a maintenance person or contractor or tenants or somebody who is delivering a program, when you hand that off to them, if you don''t have a specific reference to the standards, there''s no telling what they''re going to do to fix it. They may not realize, unless you give them real details, you may not realize how complex the solution is or when it says, you know, if you say the light switch is too high and you don''t say lower to no higher than 48 inches, they may not realize that, well, 60 inches we can lower it to 54 I''ve heard that was okay. Well, that was okay under ''91. It''s not okay under 2010. So you need to give specific references so they can get back to the details; Photographs of the barriers that show the problem in context and in detail so that somebody can look at it in their office and figure out what they have to do before they go in. If you''ve got a carpenter that''s planning to widen a door frame, if they have a photograph that says, that''s a concrete block wall, I have to schedule the masons, this is not Sheetrock and wood studs, I have a little more complicated solution or that''s an ornate door, I have to order that before we go in. Again, having those photographs helps people to get oriented and get efficient in the managing process. Now that digital photographs are as cheap as they are, you want a way to coordinate those. Again, you need to be able to tie the photograph numbers into the database of the rest of the information. So you need to match the information either house the photographs in the database or link those through some sort of file naming strategy. You need to have maybe some sort of code for prioritizing a barrier removal if you''re going to do surveys faster than you do the fixes, you may need to look at, where do we need to start? One of the codes that we look at to this is the use code. How much of the area is used, or the element, and by whom? By the public and/or who controls it. These are the kind of space-related codes that tell you, for example, if you''re in a stadium, that''s a high public area. So you might give it a use code of an HP in your data. General public might be places where the public goes but not like a stadium or arena or, you know, a polling place or something. Minimal public use, yeah the public goes in there some, but not that often. So that wouldn''t have quite the urgency of barrier removal as the high level would or the barrier is maybe located along an evacuation or emergency exit route. Or maybe it''s an area that is controlled by a landlord or some other governmental entity. Let''s say you''re on the library board and the barriers between your parking lot that you do control and your front door, but the barrier is actually in the sidewalk that you don''t control, the local city government controls that. But there''s, you know, a cross-slope problem or a problem with routes making joints, trip hazards. You might want to be able to flag that with the use code, we call it G, for local government control, so you would be able to accumulate all these barriers together and notify the local government entity or tenant controlled areas, we give it a T for tenant controlled area. Again, if the tenant is providing your program access you''re responsible for making sure they provide program access. But it may not -- you may not have control over that area, so you want to be able to identify the barriers to program access and be able to turn those over to somebody else. So having a method like the use code to do that allows you to separate those barriers out once you''ve got your long list and deal with those separately. You need to have maybe some sort of code for prioritizing a barrier removal if you''re going to do surveys faster than you do the fixes, you may need to look at, where do we need to start? One of the codes that we look at to this is the use code. How much of the area is used, or the element, and by whom? By the public and/or who controls it. These are the kind of space-related codes that tell you, for example, if you''re in a stadium, that''s a high public area. So you might give it a use code of an HP in your data. General public might be places where the public goes but not like a stadium or arena or, you know, a polling place or something. Minimal public use, yeah the public goes in there some, but not that often. So that wouldn''t have quite the urgency of barrier removal as the high level would or the barrier is maybe located along an evacuation or emergency exit route. Or maybe it''s an area that is controlled by a landlord or some other governmental entity. Let''s say you''re on the library board and the barriers between your parking lot that you do control and your front door, but the barrier is actually in the sidewalk that you don''t control, the local city government controls that. But there''s, you know, a cross-slope problem or a problem with routes making joints, trip hazards. You might want to be able to flag that with the use code, we call it G, for local government control, so you would be able to accumulate all these barriers together and notify the local government entity or tenant controlled areas, we give it a T for tenant controlled area. Again, If the tenant is providing your program access you''re responsible for making sure they provide program access. But it may not -- you may not have control over that area, so you want to be able to identify the barriers to program access and be able to turn those over to somebody else. So having a method like the use code to do that allows you to separate those barriers out once you''ve got your long list and deal with those separately. Another for prioritizing barrier removal is what we call a DOJ code. We call it a DOJ code because in Title III regulations put out by the Department of Justice, look, if you don''t know any other way to set priorities than this, you''re a small entity, then first get people out of the weather into the facilities. Second, access to the programs activities and services; third, access to toilet rooms; Fourth, access to other elements like drinking fountains or telephones. Now, if it''s a rest stop, the drinking fountains or telephones may be program access, category two. But if it''s a normal facility it''s probably a category four. And then you may choose to survey duplicates of elements or spaces you''re planning to fix so you know if something goes wrong with one of those you got a duplicate, kind of a black-up location and you can give that a code, maybe 5. And then for analyzing priority you need to know how severe is the barrier? Is it so out of compliance that it might be a safety consideration for people with disabilities? Is it a curb ramp that slopes more than 12%, 12 and a half percent, something like that, we start people flipping over or tripping on curb ramps if they get too steep. Does it block access to a significant number of people with disabilities? So a long, long ramp might block access. Maybe a fully compliant ramp, but if it rises too high at the maximum allowable slope, it might really block access. Is it major inconvenience to a significant number of people with disabilities and maybe blocks access for some people with more severe disabilities, a minor inconvenience to most people with disability, might be major to a few but really doesn''t block access to many. This is what you''ll typically see called "the minimalist barriers." A - Safety, B - Blocks access, C - major inconvenience, D - minor, E might be if you''ve chosen to survey to a stricter state or local standard it might fail the stricter standard but pass the ADA. Or if it''s fully compliant and you want to document it, you can give that a severity code of F. Again, use codes and severity codes and really the DOJ code, these are not in the Title II regulations. DOJ code is in Title III but these are ways that we found make good logical sense for helping to analyze what to work on when. Again, not a mandate but helpful information to achieve or to collect; detailed methods you use to achieve compliance. So once you''ve collected the basic information about the barrier, what are you going to do -- what are you going to include about how you''re going to achieve compliance? So proposed physical solution, describe that. Maybe cost estimates where the effort required for proposed method of correction. So if you don''t have the ability to cost estimate, does it look like it''s easy or hard, expensive or cheap? Any additional requirements of state standard that might apply and then any possible alternative method, so this section is looking at in your data about the transition planning barriers that you''re going to be considering for removal, what is it going to cost? What is it going to take? What do we have to do? This is the section on that. So in the process I''m calling it Roman numeral 10, subsection C. Alright, next is additional methods, alternative or administrative methods, if you''re going to use those in lieu of removal of physical barrier. You may want to collect how expensive is this going to be or hard is this going to be to do it? What level of effort to execute this alternative method? How is it going to be communicated to and coordinated with those that are responsible for implementing it? And implementing it long term, not just immediately. You might want to identify any difficulties that are -- that you expect with long-term continued dependence on the method. The name and position of the individuals that are approving this instead of barrier removal and the decision maker''s contact information. This might be helpful in the future when you''re coming back to this or somebody else is coming behind you to figure out, what were the expectations? And other detailed methods. After you make the decision to take either physical fix or an alternative method, who is going to be responsible for the work? You might want to go ahead, either during the survey process or more likely after the survey is finished or particular facility or group of facilities, you''re going to look at, who is going to be responsible for the work? We call it a responsibility code. That allows you to sort your data into these kind of coordination responsibilities. So maybe a specific department is going to be responsible for dealing with it or operation staff or custodial or housekeeping staff or if it''s a maintenance staff, you may want to subdivide it to locksmiths, landscapers, carpenters, plumbers, electricians, others. You might have a capital improvements group that hires architects and contractors responsible for the larger physical fixes or it may be legal. If you have barriers that relate to landlords or tenants where you''re leasing space or leasing it out or to another government agency that may be assigned to your legal department to handle that because they know where the contracts and leases and obligations are. So, again, you might want to have a responsibility code in the process. If not, to start with, once you''ve identified the barriers it will help you manage it. If you''re creating a spreadsheet or database to do this, or using one of the spreadsheets or databases already that''s out there, that''s information that really makes it easier for you to implement the process later. After physical barrier removal is complete, then you want to probably track the date that that barrier was removed. The name of the person that certified that it was completed as noted below. And, again, certifier, you could just say the person that approved the work and then their contact information. You might want to have a place on particular barriers to keep track of differences between initial transition plan and actual physical work completed, so an exception or note. Reasons for changes to the physical barrier removal, who approved those and when they were approved, so that if the transition plan initially expected one solution but that was changed, you''ve got some sort of documentation as to why. Now, specifically a transition plan that is required if you have responsibility for street, sidewalks and curb ramps, you have to include those in your transition plan. So you need to, in doing the transition planning for street, sidewalks and curb ramps, you need to, number one, decide whether you use an automated system or manual method for identifying barriers. There are systems out there, some riding systems that you climb onto and you just run the route through the public right-of-way and it tracks wherever you have slopes, cross-slopes, transitions that are non-compliant, et cetera. There are also manual methods for doing that. Again, this is something you can look into and see. The automated methods are generally more thorough and faster. But they generate a tremendous amount of information. You may won''t to look at that if writer responsible for streets or sidewalks. If you''re going to use manual method, you probably want to use some sort of survey forms with diagrams that allow you to assess all the existing conditions consistently and to develop solutions in the field where possible because then the person who is doing the survey can actually see whether that solution would work. It''s a temptation to kind of collect the information and go back to the office and come up with a solution, you don''t have enough information that may be difficult. You probably want to survey these only once and collect all the information that you need for decisions and management of the process. And then put your plan together. The worst thing to happen is to survey your curb ramps and go, oh, no, we forgot to collect X, and have to go back out and resurvey all your curb ramps. We suggest you do it with a pilot program to start with so that you test your method, test the type of information that you''re collecting. You test the reporting process you''re going to come back with. Then you can tweak that process or maybe alter it significantly before you go out and do all of the work for all of the facilities. And then setting priorities, again, we discussed priority setting for curb ramps and public rights of way in our last session. How do you organize the information and communicate it to the people that need to know it? There are some difficulties with hard copy data, plans and spreadsheets. Databases can resolve, again, you want to really think about this, think it all the way through as you''re putting it together. If you''re starting out with one building, that''s pretty easy to do with hardcopy information. It''s when you start getting hundreds of buildings; dozens of buildings, thousands of buildings that you really need to go to a database just because of the logistics difficulties otherwise. Do you want to have the database live on an Internet server with layered access or specific user types so the contractors can''t see your cost estimates? The people who have responsibility for adjusting door closers don''t have to look at the ramp placement information. There is a lot of ways you can use a database to manage this information and you may want to look into that. It''s a very good way to communicate information consistently over time as well. Photos, you need to be able to give people access to the photographs that need access. Floor plans, if facilities, parks, exterior routes, et cetera, you need to have that information organized in a way that people can find it and find what you said about it and have done about it. Geographic information systems to manage public rights of way and site data and to document that process; GIS is the way that most entities that have large site responsibilities are managing their data now, some tremendous advantages to using GIS systems. You want to be able to integrate your public right-of-way information into the GIS system so it becomes a part of the way your site work staff manages their work. You don''t want to have something that is totally separate that they have to remember to go out and look for when they go out to replace something that has been damaged. You want it integrated and a way that can get to it as seamlessly as possible. Also, maps showing all the facilities with the accessible facilities noted and showing where your most accessible routes are. You want to be able to keep this updated. Again, web-based information is the best way to do that. You can use it on a site plan on your -- you can put these maps into your GIS system if that''s publicly available or available to other people that need it. You can do it in an ADA database you can it on your website. A lot of ways you can make it available. There are excellent ways to communicate with your own people as well, with the public how you''re providing program access. The worst thing is to make all kinds of assumptions and create all kinds of alternative methods and fix physical barriers and not have the users know how to find them. So you need to communicate that effectively. Barrier prevention and monitoring, we''re winding down now. Conducting the plan reviews of new products during design and verifying construction in the field. If you''re in compliance whole, the first thing you need to do is stop digging, we''re seeing lots of public and private entities continuing to build facilities with barriers in them that don''t meet the standards. And so if you can get a process started where somebody is looking to drawings for accessibility before they''re constructed, then that will help you reduce the number of things you have to deal with later. Check your alterations projects too. You want to watch and train your maintenance staff so they''re not maintaining things in ways that make them inaccessible. Training and overseeing your custodial staff, coordinating with operations personnel, work with your public service representatives. These are people that have face-to-face contact with the program beneficiaries. Follow up with vendors and suppliers. Vendors a lot of times will show things as being accessible or claim they''re accessible but they''re really not or they don''t meet your stricter state or local requirements. You need to verify access to new programs and those that change. Leased facilities, under Title II a state or local government should always attempt to lease accessible facilities. But if you can''t for some reason, then your program access requirements are still going to apply to that. So you may have to step in and do some additional work. You may have to negotiate that with the landlord. And if the landlord says, no, we''re not fixing that, we''re not required to under Title III or we just don''t have the money for it at the lease rate we gave you, that doesn''t make the requirement technically infeasible for you. You still have to provide program access. So you have to have a work-around somehow. Practicalities, access to programs versus facility access. We talked about that. And program access is your obligation. Facility access is a method. Setting priorities when the budget is limited, how do you do that? Well, if you have the factors we talked about earlier it will make it easier for you to do that. Remember to look back at the facility selection discussion that we had in session 2 of this Audio series. Which survey details are you going to collect? The more you collect, the more time it takes, easier to manage the process later. You''ve got to make that decision; Coordinating accessibility facility solutions with your operations, maintenance, procurement, various program providers to assure consistent program access. Another practicality you really need to be following. Then tracking and communicating what you''re doing, what you''ve done and how to use it. And our last one is funding the work. Again, this could be a completely separate session, but a few things to think about just to kind of give you a taste of options. First, stop the processes that are creating new barriers. It isn''t actually funding but avoiding punting. Train your design and construction team members, I would ask them what training they''ve done before you give them a contract. ADA plan reviews and new construction alterations, review and approvals of standard accessible products, and having a place where those are stored so that people who are working for you know which toilet paper dispenser is actually accessible or mounted in a place that makes it accessible. Some of the monster rolls if you put them under the grab bar they dispense too low. Training and support for maintenance and operations teams. Stop creating new barriers, the first way to get new funding. Second one is look for opportunities and methods to piggyback ADA work on other projects like ongoing maintenance or new construction, additions or alteration projects. Remember, one of the solutions for providing program access is offer the program in a new facility. Third, seek new funding sources. You can look for donations and partnership projects. It''s amazing the public entities we''ve seen that have actually secured funding with partners or donors to do barrier removal. There are some state funding sources available, federal funding sources available, FEMA, direct grants, et cetera, depending on what type of entity you are and whether those moneys are being funded. So those are some of the ways that you can look for funding. So that''s kind of a broad overview of the transition planning process. We can take questions now.
Thanks, Jim and thanks Irene. A reminder before I bring operator Norma, our operator in to give instructions for participants on the telephone to ask questions. For those in the webinar room, you can submit questions in the chat area by clicking on the chat area or Control-M. Even though your questions are not viewable once you submit them, they are viewable by the presenters and moderators. Operator, if you could come on and give instructions to phone participants on how to ask questions at this time, please?
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, at this time if you have a question, please press star and then one on your touch tone phone. If your question has been answered or you would like to remove yourself from the queue, you may press the pound key. If you have a question, please press star and then one.
All right. A question was submitted in the webinar room, Jim, what is the name of the automated system for identifying barriers on streets, sidewalks, trails and curb ramps?
There are two of those that I know of. One of them is the ULIP, and I can''t remember what that stands for. That was developed under some sort of a grant, I think, from the Department of Transportation. I know COE Engineering in St. Louis has that system. There''s another group out of Nevada. Irene, help me. I can''t remember if that has -- that has a system that is a push cart. If you go to the ADA National Symposiums, sometimes they have booths there and I''ll be doing a more detailed program on transition planning at that symposium this summer. But the group is out of -- I think Newnan or Linden, Nevada. You can Google that and see if you can find it.
Thank you. Operator, do we have any questions on the telephone at this time?
Yes, the first question comes from Caller. The line is open.
We were just talking; it''s the UTAP, the universal trail assessment process by Peter Axleson in Linden, Nevada.
That''s it, yes.
Thanks for your presentation. Lots of incredible information here, the question I have is, have you got any suggestions or tricks in dealing with all sorts of, you know, state processes, you know, like the lowest bid, the budget relief process, and even legislative approval to get the funding for some of these things?
So the question is how you work through that maze?
If you''ve got any tricks or suggestions in dealing with those processes in what you''ve already described, it''s great for, you know, the mom and pop organizations that are -- you know, the local entities dealing with maybe a courthouse and an annex and that sort of thing, but when you''re talking about state agencies that deal with, you know, entire states of thousands of different properties and that sort of thing and you''re dealing with, like I said, the legislative process of going through budget that involve all sorts of additional processes. I''m wondering if you''ve dealt with that or have any suggestions or tricks in dealing with that.
My experience has shown that is one of the hardest things to deal with. It''s also the least consistent among people who do this work. You know, I''ve seen a number of places where you have multiple sequential ADA coordinators surely because of that problem. I''ve seen other places where you get somebody who comes in and stays for, you know, 20 years as the ADA coordinator, and a lot of it is -- in fact, I have another session that I have done on navigating the internals to get the -- you know, how does an ADA coordinator navigate through those difficulties? I think the key things to look at in the short version is identify your mentors who are other people who have had to go through a process -- the process for something else that required a similar bureaucracy negotiation effort. Find out who those people are. Identify your champions. Who within the various organizations that you need to deal with, who within those organizations understands the ADA and what you need do and they''re more likely to give you help. They''re more likely to point you to people who can help you get around the road blocks and understand the road blocks and avoid them. So it''s mainly just going through that process of working within the organization to find out who you can get help from who you can get help from and what your obligations really are. It''s critical that ADA coordinators have the attention of people at the top of the organization, whether it''s a city council or city managers or a county commissioner or the president of the university, whoever, you need to have access to people who have financial input or decision making as well as legal input. You need to have those contacts in your court in order to be effective at this process.
Sounds good. Thank you. I appreciate it.
Thanks for the question, Rick. Let''s go to another question submitted online. And this question states: If a jurisdiction had fewer than 50 employees in 1991 but has since grown above that number and they never completed a transition plan and no longer has survey, self-evaluation that was done, are they required to do their survey and transition plan based only on the 2010 ADA standards?
Irene do you want to take that one?
I understand the first part of the have question. I see, I think what you''re asking is whether only the -- what weather you need to look at only the things for which the standards have changed as of 2010. If you now have more than 50 people and that''s the trigger for having a transition plan, then you need to have a transition plan. If you can''t find it, then I think you don''t have one. So -- and if it was done so long ago that nobody knows where it is, then it probably even though it may exist it really has no impact. So I would say, yes, you should do a transition plan for those reasons. And it should not just be based on the -- those things for which the standards changed in 2010 and for which there were new ones, but you also should -- remember at the beginning we talked about how the purpose of all this is to comply? You can''t really comply without a plan. So even if there were not those procedural requirements for having a plan, it''s my view that you need to have one so that you can comply. So I would say you should do one or at least, you know, if you can find the old one, update it and I would not focus on those -- only those things for which the standards changed. Because if you haven''t done one for the last 10 or 15 years, your facilities have changed, you''ve made some changes to them yourselves by -- you know, you made alterations, the way their use has changed as well. So I would definitely go ahead and do a new one. Jim, would you see that the same way or -
Yeah, we''ve had entities who said we just need to look at new stuff, we''re in compliance. And I really haven''t seen that as correlating with reality. There are all kinds of barriers, wherever. It may be they had an alternative method back before they forgot what the transition plan said or maybe they had programs located in different locations. Really, it''s okay to use the old standards for Safe Harboring elements, but assuming that things might have been compliant with ''91 is really not reality.
Not a good assumption to make. Let''s go to a question that was submitted by email. And this one asks about the transition plans. Can a transition plan contain a listing of the barriers and the individual/departments responsible for removing those barriers? Or should a transition plan also include recommendations on how to remove the barrier?
A transition plan is required to have four elements. What is the barrier that limits program access, how are you going to fix it, who is responsible, and which year will it disappear in? So those four are required, the other piece of information that well talked about including more logistics and management. There are some entities who expose more of those additional fields to the public. And some entities who just say, look, those are the four we have to show the people. The rest of the information is just TMI, too much information. So our database is going to have all pieces of information we collect and use to manage the process. The transition plan that gets shown to people just includes those four. So could be four or could be more, but has to include both the barrier and what is going to be used -- how it''s going to be fixed. It''s the person responsible, not the department responsible. The idea in writing the regulations was that somebody needed to know where the buck actually stopped, not just a giant faceless department that might continue passing the requirement, the obligation, along.
Excellent. Do we have another question on the telephone at this time?
Yes, I have a question. Your line is open.
Yes, I wonder when a new addition or alteration is being built on to an existing facility, when does that trigger the need and what percentage on to barriers in the older part of the facility that will be staying?
Assuming that you have -- that the existing facility, that all programs that are offered there are already accessible, then adding an addition to a facility -
They''re not already accessible.
They''re not already accessible okay you have the independent program access requirement there. But the addition itself everything must be accessible according to the standards. So everything in the addition has to be correct. Because it''s an addition, it''s subject to the path of travel requirements. So the path of travel requirement says, if you do an addition, you have to be able to get to the addition. You have to have an accessible route that gets there. If the addition, you only have to have one accessible route under the path of travel requirement, so that could come through the existing building in which case it would trigger modifications to the existing building, or it could have its own separate external entrance. So if it''s got its own separate accessible external entrance, then it wouldn''t necessarily trigger anything inside to other facility. But let''s say your addition is a classroom addition to an elementary school. Well, if that doesn''t have its own toilet rooms in it, then the path of travel for that triggers the toilet rooms being modified that serve that addition. So the paths of travel elements are the path to it, the toilets, telephones and drinking fountains that serve the altered area; so if those elements are in the existing facility then it immediately triggers it under the alteration or under the addition requirement, it would be the same for alteration. It''s triggered by the addition, but beyond that, what I would say is if you''ve got inaccessible programs in that facility while you''ve got the contractor onsite, it''s going to be the cheapest time to fix those other ones in all likelihood, unless it''s a specialty that they don''t have.
Alright, great. Thank you for your question. We''ve got time for a few more as we get close to the bottom of the hour here. Another one submitted in the chat area to the webinar room, what are some of the database programs available for tracking barrier removal?
Jim, do you use the same types of programs for barrier removal or different ones?
There are a number of programs that are out there. And I have not actually studied those recently enough to be able to give you the names of any of them, but if you want to -- if you want information on that we maintain a website called ADAtransitionplans.com. I think that''s the name of it. Once I have a chance to look into those, I''m going to develop a list of those companies that have those. I know there are several companies that do it. We''ll have some information that we can post on that.
All right. Great. Let''s go to another question submitted in advance. This person, the individual asked: How do you keep a transition plan, quote, alive, i.e. keep it updated in a realistic -- in a manner that is realistic and useful to the entity?
I think the key trick to that is to make it what you use. So if you use it like a live transition plan, if that''s where you go to create work orders or to communicate departments or to track what you did or your decisions, if you''re using that as your hub, then it stays live. As to how often you go back and reassess your facilities or reassess your programs, that''s just usually a question of budget and time. But if you can keep the same database or spreadsheet or whatever you''re using, if you can keep the same things functioning as your core information source, it''s much easier to keep it up to date. It''s when you print it and put it on a shelf that it becomes stale and maybe not very useful.
All right. Thank you. We have reached the bottom of the hour and want to thank both Jim and Irene for joining us the past three months for these three excellent, excellent sessions and all the information and material and ideas that have been shared by them over this Three-Part Series. The first two sessions in the series are archived and available on the ADA-audio.org website already. Today''s session, the audio archive will be available within 24 hours. An edited transcript of today''s session will be available within 10 business days. Both of those will be available through the ADA-audio.org website. I want to remind you that the next session in the audio conference series will take place on April 15th, tax day, where we will switch to employment. And the pros and cons of Googling job applicants is the topic for the April 15th audio conference session. You can get information about registration and a full description of that session by visiting www.ada-audio.org or by calling 877-232-1990. Please remember that you can always contact your regional ADA center by calling 800-949-4232 or visiting www.adata.org. I want again to thank on behalf of the audio conference team and the ADA national network Irene Bowen and Jim Terry for joining us for these three excellent presentations over the past three months. So thank you very much to both of you, and we look forward to working with the two of you in the future. And thanks to all of you for joining us over the past three months or if you just joined us today, this has been a very popular topic. So I would encourage you to visit the archives where you can access an audio archive of all three sessions shortly, as well as all of the handout materials provided by Irene and Jim as part of this program. So thank you again for joining us. Good day to everyone. For those of you in the webinar room, you can close your Internet browser to access the webinar platform and for those of you on the telephone, you simply need to hang up. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for participating in today''s conference. You may disconnect. Have a wonderful day.