Description

There is no grandfather clause for places of public accommodation or for public entities under the ADA. Most existing facilities used by the public must be made accessible for people with disabilities. This course will analyze the specific obligations, exceptions, and examples of methods that can be used to meet the existing facility requirements efficiently and effectively.

Several federal entities are now focused on making poll sites and elections independently accessible to and usable by people with disabilities. This course covers the most important considerations and solutions to help accessibility specialists serve the thousands of election districts in their efforts to comply with the expectations of these agencies. 

The 2017 ICC A117.1 now includes many new options for accessibility for parking and sidewalks. This course will discuss new options for parking, including provisions for electrical vehicle charging stations, diagonal parking, and street parking. We will also look at the new requirements for perpendicular and parallel curb cuts as well as blended provisions. We will discuss the coordination between the IBC/A117.1 and the federal Public Rights of Way Guidelines (PROWAG).

The course will explain accessible entry and emergency egress from a building. The way someone enters and moves into a building is not always the same way they move to evacuate a building in an emergency. In addition to accessible entry, persons with disabilities must be considered when designing plans and building systems used for emergency evacuation. The accessible means of egress provisions from the International Building Code (IBC) are referenced 2010 ADA Accessibility Standard and will be required for all new construction. This program will introduce you to the concepts, details and application of exiting provisions and assist in understanding how the codes and federal regulations are now working to harmonize the national response to designing a building not only for ingress, but for egress as well. Discussions will include operational safety plans, fire drills, notification/communication for occupants in a building during the emergency, and physical building requirements.

This course will explore the complicated endeavor of ADA compliance in the higher education arena. Projects of multiple ages and changing uses, lengthy renovation history, overlapping requirements, complex funding mechanisms, and a continuing interface with a changing public combine to create a challenging environment in which to comply with accessibility requirements.

Our recent series of projects with a number of public and private institutions have highlighted useful design strategies and construction oversight techniques that have resulted in better compliance and significant savings, limiting tear-out and rework - all to the benefit of the design teams, contractors, districts and their effective stewardship of available funding.