Despite the substantial impact of the ADA legislation, people with disabilities (PwD) still
encounter significant barriers in public building accessibility that prevent equitable community
participation. One solution is to make information about building accessibility publicly available, but to
date, this information has been virtually nonexistent. This project, based at the R2D2 Center and in
collaboration with the Universities of New Mexico, Columbia, Marquette and IndependenceFirst will
deploy the AccessRatings for Buildings app suite (ARB) into urban/suburban and rural communities.
The goal of this project is to improve community participation for PwD through the successful
implementation of a novel building accessibility information system that has been developed over the past
decade and is ready for community testing.
Objectives of this study are: 1) Prepare for community rollout by modernizing apps to post
COVID-19 food services (including a health safety section) and develop a short-form of the AccessTools
app for novice assessors; 2) Deploy ARB into test communities; and 3) Validate ARB outcomes with
community stakeholders.
Outcomes include: 1) PwD having easily available accessibility information about public
buildings targeting a 75% saturation rate of restaurants in 7 selected communities, 2) facilitation of better
community participation for all, 3) successful development a community methodology for replication in
additional locales, and 4) published refereed papers and presentations.
Planned Products of the ARB project include: a) Updated AccessPlace and AccessTools question
taxonomies, 2) A short-form version of AccessTools, 3) A community engagement and ARB Rollout
Protocol, 4) Demonstrated adoption of the ARB information apps in 7 communities 5) Documentation of
successful ARB Community Rollout from pre and post surveys.