Navigating ADA Compliance

Problem, research strategy, and findingsThe Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), passed in 1990, set requirements that public agencies in the United States, which receive federal funds, must remove physical barriers in the public right-of-way that might prevent someone with a disability from accessing goods and services. ADA’s impact on transportation extends from equitable access in public transportation to meeting compliance requirements for curb ramps at intersections. Researchers argue that public agencies are still falling behind in ADA implementation due to scarce funding, inadequate asset inventory development, and limited transition/compliance plans. We asked: What can organizations and practitioners do to improve ADA implementation for infrastructure design and supply? We relied on an online survey (n = 206) and semistructured interviews (n = 36) with transportation practitioners across the United States. The findings revealed that ADA implementation has been thwarted due to three primary themes that make meeting ADA implementation in transportation challenging: 1) political priorities and organizational coordination that limit ADA in practice; 2) limited guidance, resources, and capacity; and 3) challenges with retrofits, new construction, and maintenance.Takeaways for practiceOur work suggests that organizations and practitioners wish to expand ADA implementation, but to achieve this, additional monetary resources and employee training are needed. Requiring ADA asset inventories and compliance plans, along with developing a framework to improve accessibility from project conception to postdelivery, could incentivize widespread ADA implementation.