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According to U.S. Census Bureau data from 2021, there are about 42.5 million Americans with disabilities, making up 13 percent of the civilian noninstitutionalized population. This group includes people with hearing, vision, cognitive, walking, self-care or independent-living difficulties.

For much of human civilization, engineers designed infrastructure through the lens of the non-disabled, with little regard for how certain aesthetic or functional features may affect or even become obstacles for those with disabilities. In 1990, the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law, which extended civil rights protections to people with disabilities and looked to prevent discrimination against the disabled in the workplace and in public spaces. The law was amended with improvements in 2008.

The ADA Standards for Accessible Design—first published in 1991 and later updated in 2010—dictate what’s required for a building or facility to be physically accessible to people with disabilities. Public Right-of-Way Accessibility Guidelines (PROWAG) published with a final rule effective Sept. 7, 2023, include new guidelines that address access to sidewalks and streets, crosswalks, curb ramps, pedestrian signals, on-street parking and other components of public right-of-way.

From my personal work experience, I can attest that engineering for ADA compliance has come a long way, and enforcement is much more serious—non-compliant elements will be ripped out and reconstructed, wasting time and money. It’s much quicker and cost effective to prove and show that infrastructure can be designed to meet ADA compliance before going out into the field.

This professional-development article will focus only on one aspect of engineering for those with accessibility needs: curb ramps that gently transition a pedestrian from a curb to a street or vice versa. And it will focus only on one particular project: the East Colfax Avenue Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project in Denver.

Author
M. ALBERT HERRERA, P.E., SENIOR ENGINEERING MANAGER, PARSONSLearning Objectives
At the conclusion of this article, the reader should be able to understand:

• How Parsons used curb-design software to make informed decisions under constrained conditions.

• How incorporating clients’ design criteria into curb-design software is essential to ensure ADA compliance.

• How curb-design software allowed Parsons to shift crosswalks and move curb ramps to integrate (align) to new placements (locations).

• How 3D tools can help showcase ADA-compliant curb designs and challenges.