Future Planning and Implementation
Accessibility in the field of planning and development has, for some time, been treated as an afterthought. The built environment around us has been planned, designed, engineered, and only after its construction, retrofitted to be just good enough to meet compliance standards with various local, state, and federal guidelines.
This phenomenon (which is not at all unique to the region) can be largely attributed to the fact that infrastructure in the United States had been built around the use of the automobile, without much consideration for pedestrians.
In those cases where accessibility is thought of first, it is often avoidantly and reluctantly, not due to personal opposition among those responsible for enacting policy, but because of persistent structural and financial barriers. After all, it can be prohibitively expensive to reconstruct infrastructure in a way that aligns with this new understanding of the transportation landscape.
This mindset is slowly changing as organizations and agencies evolve to recognize that accessibility must remain at the forefront of any of their services, activities, or programs. And further, agencies are recognizing that the best way to address accessibility barriers is by confronting and planning for them, not by avoiding them in fear of punitive action from superior regulatory bodies.
Fortunately, there are documents that allow organizations to do precisely this. Program Access Plans and Transition Plans are the future of accessibility in public agencies.
