[Nfbf-l] {Disarmed} Fw: The Rehabilitation Act and Creation of the Access Board

[Sherri]

The Rehabilitation Act and Creation of the Access BoardJust passing this 
along.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: Samme.Ripley at ocfl.net
Sent: Tuesday, October 01, 2013 1:02 PM
Subject: FW: The Rehabilitation Act and Creation of the Access Board


Hi – just to let you know that the Access Board is governed by the federal 
government shutdown until it ends.   The board and staff will not be 
responding to any accessibility issues or work that was in progress until 
they are called back to work WHENEVER that date is!



….Samme



From: United States Access Board 
[mailto:access-board at service.govdelivery.com]
Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2013 10:14 AM
To: Ripley, Samme
Subject: The Rehabilitation Act and Creation of the Access Board



The Rehabilitation Act and Creation of the Access Board





     Karen L. Braitmayer Access Board Chair





     David M. Capozzi Access Board Executive Director



Today marks the 40th anniversary of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 which 
requires access to programs and activities that are funded by federal 
agencies and to federal employment. The law also created the U.S. Access 
Board to ensure access to the built environment.

Specifically, the Board was established to enforce a law passed a few years 
earlier, the Architectural Barriers Act (ABA) of 1968. One of the first laws 
on the books to address accessibility, the ABA aimed to make the federal 
government a model of accessibility by requiring access to all facilities 
designed, built, altered, or leased with federal funds. In passing the 
Rehabilitation Act, Congress determined that the ABA needed better 
enforcement. As originally written, the ABA effectively left compliance up 
to each agency with little oversight. Further, comprehensive standards for 
accessibility were not available at that time. It was clear that a central 
agency was needed to both establish and enforce accessibility requirements 
for facilities covered by the law.

According to Access Board Chair Karen L. Braitmayer, FAIA, "In creating the 
Access Board, Congress recognized that you can't guarantee accessibility 
until you clearly spell out how it is to be achieved and have a process in 
place to make sure that those requirements are met." In fact, the lessons 
learned from the ABA and the Rehabilitation Act would not be lost on later 
laws, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

"With accessibility, it's fair to say that the Federal government 
essentially started in its own backyard," states David M. Capozzi, the 
Access Board's Executive Director. "The Rehabilitation Act and the 
Architectural Barriers Act helped lay the groundwork for the landmark ADA 
and coverage of accessibility beyond the federal realm."

To this day, the Board continues to do what it was created to do. It 
develops and keeps up-to-date the accessibility requirements of the ABA and 
enforces compliance with them through the investigation of complaints. If a 
member of the public is concerned about access to a facility that may have 
received federal funding, it can file a complaint with the Board. The Board 
then opens an investigation to determine whether the facility is covered by 
the ABA and, if so, whether it meets the applicable standards. If a covered 
facility is not in compliance, the Board will pursue a corrective action 
plan and monitor the case until all necessary work is completed. The Board 
typically opens about 50 to 100 cases each year, and has ensured access to 
all types of facilities covered by the ABA, including post offices, national 
parks, and social security offices, among others. Since the ABA also applies 
to non-Federal buildings that are federally funded, the Board's casework has 
encompassed many other types of facilities as well, such as schools, transit 
stations, local courthouses and jails, and public housing.

The Board's mission has grown tremendously over the years under later laws. 
Its work developing and maintaining accessibility requirements is no longer 
limited to buildings covered by the ABA. Now, the Board is responsible for 
design requirements for facilities and transportation systems covered by the 
ADA, electronic and information technology in the federal sector under 
Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, telecommunications equipment subject 
to the Telecommunications Act of 1996, and, most recently, medical 
diagnostic equipment under Section 510 of the Rehabilitation Act. Through 
this work, the Board has become a leading resource on accessible design.

"The Board has eagerly accepted the responsibility to address access in new 
and unchartered areas," says Capozzi. "The Board maintains a very active and 
varied rulemaking agenda. In fact, just today, the Board is releasing new 
guidelines that address access to federal outdoor recreation sites." The 
Board is also developing new guidelines or standards for public 
rights-of-ways, shared use paths, passenger vessels, emergency housing, 
classroom acoustics, and medical diagnostic equipment. Having previously 
developed and updated its guidelines for facilities under the ABA and ADA, 
the Board is currently refreshing its ADA guidelines for transportation 
vehicles and its standards and guidelines for information and communication 
technologies covered by section 508 and the Telecommunications Act. In 
addition to rulemaking, the Board provides technical assistance and training 
to the public on its guidelines and standards on a regular basis and funds 
research on accessible design.

"Often people ask which department the Board is part of, but in fact it is 
an independent federal agency with authority to report directly to the 
President and Congress," says Braitmayer. Its governing Board includes 13 
members from the public appointed by the President to four-year terms. Over 
the years, almost 100 people have served on the Board as public members. 
Since the Board also coordinates policy government-wide relating to 
accessible design, 12 federal departments are represented on the Board as 
well.

Recollections from Former Board Members

In recognition of the Rehabilitation Act's 40th anniversary, the Board 
thought it was worth looking back to reflect on what the law, and its 
establishment of the Board, have brought about. It reached out to former 
public members and asked for their thoughts and recollections from their 
service on the Board.


Hale Zukas
Board Member (1979 – 1984)

"The biggest accomplishment during my tenure was the development of the 
Board's Minimum Guidelines and Requirements for Accessible Design. These 
were the first design requirements for accessibility laid down by the 
federal government, and they were instrumental in comprehensively defining 
architectural accessibility and giving teeth to the ABA so that there was a 
clear and distinct means for enforcing compliance. They served as the basis 
for the first mandatory standards issued under the ABA known as the Uniform 
Federal Accessibility Standards (UFAS). If an entity covered by the ABA 
didn't meet the standards, it violated the law. UFAS certainly had a useful 
span and long run. It was used to measure enforcement with the ABA for over 
20 years and remains in effect at this time for housing facilities. It also 
was the basis for the first standards issued under the ADA and was permitted 
as an alternate standard for state and local governments until last year."


Steven A. Diaz
Board Member (1985 – 1987)

"During my tenure, the Board came to terms with its obligation to provide an 
effective enforcement mechanism. The Board had a difficult time recognizing 
that setting technical standards was only half the work. We confronted the 
Board's role in providing a forum for those denied access and a channel for 
redress through its Compliance and Enforcement division."

"The Federal role in an accessible society is a fundamental premise of our 
notion of civil liberties. The Board sets the tone with its standards and 
commitment to the goal of maximum feasible accommodation. It is the 
attitudinal barriers that are the hardest to break down and which require 
diligence and leadership from the Board. Working towards universal public 
awareness and education as to why we aspire to be a fully accessible 
society, with all of the accompanying benefits for everyone, is an enormous 
task. The Board's writ to deal with "attitudinal barriers" opens the way to 
such awareness and education efforts which must embrace collaborative 
efforts between the Board and educators, veterans, parents, employers, and 
transportation officials as well as all of the constituents and components 
of the disability communities."


Pamela Holmes
Board Member (1994 – 2002)

"What was impressive with all the work the Board did during my tenure while 
developing these guidelines and standards was the meticulous gathering of 
all the impacted stakeholders in the community to discuss and have 
substantive input on the guidelines and standards as they were being 
developed for consensus building early in the process."

"An ongoing challenge for all those in the federal sector in improving 
accessibility for people with disabilities is to do so in a way that is 
nimble enough that it keeps up with the current technological solutions and 
needs, yet careful enough that all sides of the situation are thoroughly 
explored. As our country becomes more and more immersed in technological 
solutions, we do not want to set standards that limit the advancements of 
better solutions that emerge within the timeframe of the development, 
comment period, creation of final rule and implementation."

"Enforcement is as critical as the careful crafting of the guidelines and 
standards themselves. People are living longer and the population of 
individuals with disabilities has grown substantially since the original 
laws were enacted. As we 'build out' a new more accessible America, we must 
constantly be vigilant of how to minimize barriers before the lawsuits and 
complaints can even surface. Without the public seeing strict enforcement, 
barriers will continue to exist and the good work of all the stakeholders 
who came to the table to help avoid such obstacles will be in vain."


Douglas Anderson
Board Member (2003 – 2011)

"I will always consider my work on the Board among the most significant 
offerings I have had the opportunity to give to society. I served on the 
Board during its update and release of its ADA and ABA Accessibility 
Guidelines in 2004, which was a big accomplishment. Since passage of the 
ADA, one of the biggest changes we've seen is the integration of access into 
the design of buildings that allows people with disabilities the opportunity 
to use buildings in the same way all users do. Accessible design has become 
a standard practice within the design and construction industry instead of 
just a specialty."

"Of course, with the Board's responsibility to address accessible design not 
only in the built environment, but also transportation, communication, and 
information technology, challenges remain, such as making both ambient and 
interactive technology fully accessible to people with disabilities. These 
continuously evolving systems offer amazing potential for equal access, yet 
are also very vulnerable to missing the opportunity to building access into 
the system."


Further Information

For further information on the work of the Board and the Rehabilitation Act, 
see:

  a.. Access Board Mission
  b.. Enforcement of the ABA
  c.. History of the Access Board
  d.. Access Board Rulemaking
  e.. Laws Concerning the Access Board





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