Proceedings of: Workshop on Improving Building Design for Persons with Low Vision

Background of U.S. Access Board

The U.S. Access Board is a federal agency (slide 2). Our real name is the U.S. Architectural and Transportation Barriers Complaints Board. We have more letters in our name than we have employees. We have about 27 staff; we have board members who are either very high level federal agency personnel and their liaison staff, such as Susan and Tom; or we have individuals who are appointed by the president to serve on the board. Half of our board members from the private sector must be people with various disabilities or parents of individuals with disabilities in some cases.

Our office is divided into three units: the Executive Office, which is sort of self-explanatory; Gen. Counsel Office, which again, is self-explanation; and Technical and Information Services. And Technical and Information Services, which is my unit, is the unit that conducts our rulemaking and also conducts our very miniscule research arm, as well as provides all the technical assistance and all the training related to our work.

And you can see Access Board programs, which I’ve listed here (slide 3). This is essentially what we’re authorized to do under various laws. The Architectural Barriers Act was actually passed in 1968. That gives you a clue as to how old Tom is. [The ABA] has applied to federal facilities.