“Ensuring physical accessibility provides students, regardless of ability or disability, with access to learning as part of an inclusive college campus,” say CUNY researchers Patrick Flink, Ph.D. and Timothy Leonard, Ed. D. in The Journal of Teaching Disability Studies.
Learn how GPRS can help you map everything above and below-ground, here.
How colleges and universities create that physical access and remove access barriers is an ongoing process involving facilities managers, operations managers, faculty, support staff, students, disability services staff, and regulatory agencies. Because the disciplines that work to create and improve accessibility tools are innovating new methodologies and technology every day.
What follows here is a technical roadmap for conducting a campus physical accessibility study that ensures that all critical factors for student services and physical spaces are addressed in a methodical and actionable manner and creates a comprehensive record of changes and updates to your infrastructure.
10 Steps to Create a Full Campus Physical Accessibility Plan
1. Define Scope and Objectives
Clearly outline the study’s parameters. Identify which campus facilities—including academic buildings, dormitories, and outdoor areas—will be assessed. Set measurable goals focused on improving usability, safety, and compliance with legal standards.
The University of Washington’s “DO-IT” program has been providing facilities managers, administrators, faculty, and students with tools to determine their accessibility needs since 2007. Their video, Self-Examination: How Accessible is Your Campus? is one of a variety of assets available to help start the conversation, set goals, and plan implementation.
2. Assemble a Multidisciplinary Team
Form a project team including facility managers, architects, disability services professionals, Universal Design experts, and student representatives. A broad perspective ensures the study addresses diverse user needs.
The federal government provides a useful primer for facilities managers, developers, and procurement professionals that contains a video series on how to use Universal Design to “design products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without need for adaptation or specialized design.”
3. Inventory Campus Assets
Develop a comprehensive inventory of campus facilities. Collect architectural plans, existing accessibility reports, and campus maps. Accurate data collection is essential for evaluating current conditions and identifying gaps.
Creating a comprehensive record of your entire campus infrastructure – aboveground and below – helps you to plan, design, and meet your students’ & faculty’s accessibility needs with the most efficient, cost-effective, and streamlined execution. Plus, it provides a complete infrastructure database that can be aggregated and updated across media throughout the campus life cycle.
4. Benchmark Against Established Guidelines
Compare campus assets against standards such as the ADA Standards for Accessible Design and established Universal Design principles. Key resources like the ADA website (https://www.ada.gov) and the Center for Universal Design at NC State (https://design.ncsu.edu/research/center-for-universal-design/) provide detailed explanations of how to meet regulatory requirements.
5. Conduct On-Site Assessments
Carry out detailed physical audits using standardized checklists. Assess critical elements including ramps, door widths, signage, lighting, and floor surface conditions. Document areas that do not meet Universal Design criteria or regulatory requirements. The CUNY study champions “learning walks” to “look for evidence that recommended practices are being implemented.” Learning walks are considered a less structured and more accessible informal assessment than traditional instructional rounds or teacher walkthroughs.
6. Engage Key Stakeholders
Solicit input from campus users, especially individuals with disabilities, via surveys and interviews. Stakeholder feedback is crucial for validating assessment findings and for prioritizing improvements.
7. Analyze Data and Identify Barriers
Consolidate collected data and analyze it against Universal Design principles. Identify specific non-compliant areas and physical barriers that impact campus navigation. Prioritize issues based on impact, cost, and feasibility.
8. Consider Alternative Accessibility Models
In addition to Universal Design, review other frameworks such as Barrier-Free Design—which focuses on removing physical obstacles—and Inclusive Design, which addresses a broad spectrum of user needs. Detailed guidelines and models can be found on resources like the US Department of Justice ADA Guidelines (https://www.ada.gov).
9. Develop Actionable Recommendations
Based on your analysis, create a list of prioritized recommendations. Outline design modifications, necessary retrofits, and policy updates. Include detailed timelines, budget estimates, and assigned responsibilities to ensure clear implementation steps.
10. Plan Implementation and Continuous Monitoring
Establish a phased implementation strategy. Set milestones and develop a monitoring protocol to track improvements over time. Regular reviews and updates to the study will ensure that accessibility measures remain current with evolving campus needs and regulatory changes.
Creating a secure database that aggregates everything from your initial baseline through all of your implemented steps allows your team to monitor conditions, keep up with technological and procedural improvements, and keep your campus accessible to all.
By following these steps, facility managers can systematically assess campus accessibility through a lens of Universal Design while considering complementary models to create universally accessible spaces. This structured approach facilitates targeted improvements that enhance usability and ensure compliance with evolving standards.
GPRS creates comprehensive above and below-ground infrastructure data capture for colleges and universities throughout the U.S. to help them Intelligently Visualize The Built World®.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is Universal Design?
According to the Center for Universal Design at North Carolina State University, Universal Design (UD) is defined as “The design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design.”
The seven principles of UD are Equitable Use, Flexible Use, Simple & Intuitive Use, Perceptible Information, Tolerance for Error, Low Physical Effort, and Size and Space for Approach and Use.
What design alternatives exist for campus accessibility planning?
Universal Design (UD) is the most popular and utilized methodology, but others do exist, including Universal Design for Learning (UDL), and Inclusive Design, among others, all of which can be integrated with Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT) to provide a more accessible and inclusive educational environment.
How does GPRS capture above and below-ground campus infrastructure?
GPRS Project Managers provide comprehensive data capture for higher education facilities, among others throughout the U.S. We utilize an industry-leading set of protocols called Subsurface Investigation Methodology (SIM) that requires the use of complementary technologies, standardized reporting, and allows us to be extremely accurate.
Every Project Manager is SIM-certified, which is how we maintain a 99.8% accuracy rate in utility locating and mapping and concrete imaging.
Our mapping, modeling, and data services also include NASSCO-certified video pipe inspection (VPI) reporting for sanitary and storm sewers, 2-6mm accurate 3D laser scanning, acoustic leak detection, drone photogrammetry, and in-house CAD design and BIM modeling to create anything from our complimentary layered utility maps to full 3D BIM models and flythroughs, all secured and delivered via SiteMap® (patent pending) to provide you and your team with the information you need to do the job right.
