Evan Terry Associates Barrier Management Systems

Features of the Standard Barrier Survey / Barrier Management System

(for Private Entities Covered Under Title III of the ADA and State Standards)

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The Standard ADA Barrier Survey Approach

The Evan Terry Associates (ETA) Standard Barrier Survey System has been designed to provide all of the facility-related information needed to comply with the ADA and State facility requirements in a manageable database. This survey process, developed and implemented under the field direction of ETA staff by trained surveyors, offers cost-effective suggestions for the removal of existing ADA barriers and advice on when such removal is not required for program access (under the Rehabilitation Act) or perhaps is technically infeasible.

When surveyors do not fully understand the ADA's requirements, they typically make two very expensive kinds of errors. First, they miss important barriers that may become risk-management headaches in the future (such as floor-surface barriers to people with mobility impairments and protruding objects that are safety hazards to visually impaired individuals). Second, they make overly conservative assumptions about what is required by the ADA that usually result in expensive corrections to non-problems. This problem has just been compounded by the release of the New 2010 ADA Standards and regulations which incorporate a “Safe Harbor” provision and additional exceptions under the “Maintenance of Accessible Features” section.

Since the original survey is performed and reviewed by ADA specialists using a carefully designed and evolved process, erroneous assumptions about what the ADA actually requires will be minimal or nonexistent. The possible solutions are chosen from among over twenty thousand of ETA’s standard solutions or developed in the field by our ADA specialists who have architectural access experience. That minimizes the chances that the report will include technically infeasible suggestions such as widening doors next to plumbing chases, moving structural walls to achieve “required” clearances at doors or fixtures, and similar suggestions commonly made by report writers sitting at a desk without full view of the site conditions. This quality of report will really be appreciated when your program-access barrier-removal work actually begins, particularly by those who must implement the work in the field.

Collecting the Data

Working with a PC in the field, our trained surveyor identifies the barriers for all non-compliant conditions that fall within the carefully-defined scope of our work. The surveyor then selects a standard solution or creates a new one that would meet the full requirements for physical barrier removal. When an alternative method or administrative solution is obvious to the surveyor, it is added to the database along with its probable cost. This gives you a cheaper solution that can be used until money is available for an alteration or full physical fix. The surveyor then verifies or calculates the probable cost of removal, and categorizes each barrier according to severity, how the element or area of the facility is used, and how it would be prioritized according to the simplified priorities in the regulations at Section 36.304. Photographs and surveyor’s notes complete the analysis and documentation. The barriers are also all identified on a floor or site plan to simplify the program access verification analysis and to make sure the contractor or staff person who does the work can efficiently locate the problem in the field.

The ETA ADA Barrier Management System

The ETA ADA Barrier Management System’s reports facilitate your management of identified barriers, assist you in setting priorities, allow tracking of program access, simplify capital planning for expenditures for physical barrier removal, and assist your team in making facility changes required by Title I in accommodating future employees.

Since the eventual costs of ADA compliance are typically measured in dollars per square foot, for large facilities one primary concern for a barrier management system is how to efficiently and effectively manage that expenditure. A well-designed barrier management system will simplify the removal of those barriers (without going overboard) but will also track and remind the users and their architects of specific remaining responsibilities during future alterations projects.

This database can save compliance money in a number of other ways, too. The SBS produces a list of possible solutions that are sort-capable in the ADA Barrier Management System database. This means, for example, that you can prepare a date-sorted list of door-knob replacements to allow you to bargain for a better price on hardware based on the total number of units you will be purchasing over, say, the next five years. It allows you to allocate responsibilities according to your staff's capabilities, or even to justify keeping or hiring new full- or part-time staff just to tackle specific tasks like adjusting door closers, replacing hardware, and relocating elements that are improperly placed.

The database may be used to manage all of your ADA facility responsibilities, including barrier removal during future alteration projects. Various reports have been designed to meet the specific data needs of various individuals who will need access to barrier management information without including all of the information needed to manage the entire process. For example, in discussions with future architects who will be planning alterations and additions to the facilities, a standard “Barriers” report can be easily prepared for them listing both the existing barriers in the areas to be altered and those remaining barriers which must be removed along the path of travel. The report lists applicable section and figure numbers from the relevant standards for each barrier, indicates measured existing conditions, and gives possible solutions by ADA specialists to minimize planning errors. This report, however, does not include your funding source for the barrier removal or information about related work or barriers in nonpertinent areas.

Some barriers may be removed by your users (such as moving trash receptacles, furniture, or planters); others will require your maintenance staff or a general contractor. The SBS database allows your ADA program manager or specific facility manager to make overall and/or specific judgment calls about how to allocate those responsibilities. The database can then produce prioritized task lists for each responsible party following your capital budget. Another data field that is included in the database is the funding source. It may be used to plan which funds will be used for the removal of each barrier or each type of barrier. For example, certain barriers will probably be budgeted for removal under an ADA barrier removal fund. Others will be removed during future alterations as part of those alterations funds. Still others may be eligible for outside funding. Use of this field in the database will simplify the capital planning process by using the automated sorting and mathematical capabilities of the database.

The system is designed to automatically set generic priorities based upon surveyed characteristics of each barrier and your particular concerns. It then allows you to modify those priorities based on specific circumstances or reset them in the future whenever needed. Task priorities are easily reset based on your current needs, and capital budget reports are automatically updated. When a request is made for the removal of a specific barrier, the entire system can be updated to reflect that request with truly minimal effort, whether the request comes a week after the reports are finished or five years later. Revised reports may be viewed or printed at any time.

ADA Barrier Management System Internet Access

One very powerful, no-cost option ETA offers with the ADA Barrier Management System is the ability to view your database over the Internet. The database resides on an SSL server with a high level of security and password protection at the user and manager levels. The data is presented in a series of highly intuitive screens that anyone can easily understand and use. It offers quick access to the barriers data as well as to the photographs and plans indicating the location of the barriers. Other information includes a summary of the survey process, how to read and interpret the data, and numerous reports as needed. With this system users can set schedules for barrier removal and assign responsibilities for the completion of each task to a particular individual or group. Once the removal is completed, users can update the information to reflect the actual cost and time spent to remove each barrier and add “after” photographs showing the completed barrier removal. The SBS database also allows the user to select from a series of standard reports and to filter the data to include or omit particular types of information. Barrier information is available in seconds and individually tailored output, from work orders to coordination reports, is as close as your local printer. Users can easily update the database either over the Internet or by downloading data into Microsoft Access or Excel, or other software packages for importing into the ETA system. We also have the ability to use web services features to interactively link the ETA BMS to other client databases if needed.

Finally, because the detailed data is available online, hyperlinks to that data can easily be inserted into CAD drawings or any other document which will take any viewer who has access rights directly to the detailed information on a particular barrier. So, for example, if the contractor wants to see photographs of a particular barrier and the conditions surrounding that barrier while estimating the costs in his office, a single click, a valid username and password will bring those photos onto his screen. In the same way, the spreadsheets used by your staff to set priorities and manage the project can quickly give them immediate access to the information they need to efficiently and effectively manage the work.

Summary

ETA’s ADA Barrier Management System takes the large volume of detailed barrier information generated by ADA specialists in the field and manages it to allow you and your team to actually use that data efficiently in all the ways the law requires. It is flexible enough to adapt to your barrier-removal priorities and to accommodate the way you operate your capital planning and facilities management. The system is the result of years of development by ETA and is currently in use by both public and private entities on thousands of facilities nationwide. It is flexible, efficient, and is continually being proven effective through daily use by our clients.

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