ADAADVICE
50th Anniversary of the Accessibility Standard By Kim Paarlberg, RA and Jay Woodward, RA, Senior Staff Architects, ICCl
Oct. 31, 2011, marked the 50th anniversary of the publication of the first A117.1 Accessibility Standard. We want to recognize this milestone and look at the standard’s beginnings, its influence during the past 50 years and where it stands today. We can trace the origins of both the standard and "barrier-free design" in the United States to the mid1950s. In 1958, the President’s Committee on Employment of the Physically Handicapped, assisted by the Veterans Administration, drafted a guide on facilities needed to make public buildings accessible. The U.S. Department of Labor printed this guide and sent copies to state employment agencies. In May 1959, a group of individuals interested and qualified to assist in attacking the problem of environmental barriers met with representatives from the American Standards Association (ASA), in conjunction with the Annual Meeting of the President’s Committee on Employment of the Physically Handicapped. At this meeting, the attendees determined the ASA would accept development of a new standard, with the President’s Committee and the National Easter Seal Society for Crippled Children and Adults (now Easter Seals Inc.)
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serving as co-sponsors. The Easter Seal Society would provide a majority of the funding. By October 1961, the ASA (now the American National Standards Institute, or ANSI) Standard A117.1, entitled "Making Buildings and Facilities Accessible to and Usable by the Physically Handicapped," was approved. The title of the standard was revised in 1992 and is currently called "Accessible and Usable Buildings and Facilities." Small Steps, Giant Footprints The impact and influence of the Accessibility Standard has varied throughout the past 50 years. When it was first published, that seemingly simple standard had a rather substantial impact, because there truly was no other document like it. The first chairman of the A117 committee, Leon Chaterlain, Jr., was also chair of the committee that later developed the Uniform Federal Accessibility Standards (UFAS). Dr. Tim Nugent, from the University of Illinois, directed much of the initial technical research, served as the first Secretary for the committee and also served for many years as the chairman. He implemented the accessible building requirements throughout the university, proving they could work. The Accessibility Standard was developed specifically for adoption by the model codes so that buildings could be constructed accessible, rather than retrofitted on a case-by-case basis. Dr. Nugent was a great promoter of the standard and even made several trips to England to help introduce the provisions there, planting the seeds for that country to begin development of its own accessibility provisions. Back in the States, the National Commission on Architectural Barriers prepared a report in 1967, entitled "Design for All Americans." The former U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW), now the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), published the report, which focused on implementing the ANSI Standard and recommended federal legislation. In 1968, Congress passed an important piece of legislation known as Public Law (P.L.) 90-480, or the Architectural Barriers Act. This new federal legislation required standards for design, construction and alteration of publicly owned and federally financed buildings, assuring ready access to and use of these buildings by the "physically handicapped." The 1961 edition of the A117.1 was used in implementing this program. Sections 503 and 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973