Accessibility Guidebook for Outdoor Recreation and Trails

Transition Plans

Since the 1968 passage of ABA, facilities designed, built, altered, bought, rented, or leased by, for, or on behalf of a Federal agency have been required to be accessible. Unfortunately, some Federal facilities are not yet accessible.

In the early 1990s, the Forest Service called for all units to complete transition plans identifying the changes needed to make each facility accessible and the timeline for completing those changes. Funding to complete the transition plans was provided to the regions in 1992, 1993, and 1994.

The regulation requiring transition plans for the existing facilities of all USDA agencies is 7 CFR 15e, section 150 "Program Accessibility: Existing Facilities." It requires a transition plan to be developed and implemented for any facility housing a program that is not accessible. The regulation required transition plans to be completed by December 31, 1997. Section 150(d) of 7 CFR http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/7cfr15e_03.html details the specific requirements for transition plans and their contents.

The transition plans covering many Forest Service areas were completed up to 20 years ago. The filed hard copies have been difficult to update and cannot be effectively entered into the National Resource Manager database that was later developed. To assure that their transition plans are current, Forest Service units are now resurveying facilities and recreation sites and recording the results electronically so that the database will contain accurate, current information.

No standardized format was provided in the regulation for the transition plans. Each region and some national forests developed their own transition plan format. Check with your accessibility coordinator or your regional recreation accessibility coordinator http://www.fs.fed.us/eng/toolbox/acc/documents/coord.htm#leaders or http://fsweb.mtdc.wo.fs.fed.us/toolbox/acc/documents/coord.htm (available only to Forest Service employees) or your region/station facilities program leader http://fsweb.wo.fs.fed.us/eng/documents/fac_leaders.htm (available only to Forest Service employees) to find out whether your local unit has developed a format. If not, request a sample of the formats used by other units. At a minimum, the transition plan must include:

• A list of obstacles to accessing the facility and program as identified in the accessibility evaluation survey

• A detailed description of the methods that will be used to provide accessibility

• The schedule for implementing the plan, including the actions that will be taken each year if the work takes more than a year

• The signature of the official responsible for implementation of the transition plan

Ensure transition plans are available to the public.