Development of Public Right-of-Way Accessibility Guideline Resource Material

Public agencies are required by state and federal laws to provide accessibility on their right-of-way (ROW). Failure of public agencies to provide accessibility on their ROW has resulted in costly settlements. Accordingly, the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) needs to provide information for local public agencies, consultants, contractors, and IDOT personnel about current accessibility requirements and ways to improve accessibility and avoid costly penalties resulting from non-compliance. This report presents the findings of a research project funded by the Illinois Center for Transportation (ICT) to develop resource materials on providing accessibility to the public ROW to ensure that public works projects are built to meet the latest accessibility requirements. The objectives of this project were to (1) conduct a comprehensive literature review to gather and analyze the most current resource materials on public ROW accessibility requirements, (2) recommend content for public ROW accessibility requirements on an IDOT website, (3) develop a comprehensive and practical field guide for IDOT that can be used by field engineers and construction inspectors to verify compliance with all applicable accessibility laws and regulations in the State of Illinois, (4) create e-learning modules on accessibility requirements for IDOT classroom training, and (5) develop recommendations that provide guidance to IDOT on improving compliance with public ROW accessibility requirements.  The full report is available online at https://apps.ict.illinois.edu/projects/getfile.asp?id=4741