Research at the Great Lakes ADA Center
The Great Lakes ADA center is conducting five research projects to improve understanding about ADA implementation. Findings from these projects are used to identify barriers and facilitators to effective implementation, develop a greater understanding of stakeholders’ need for and use of disability rights information, and improve ongoing ADA technical assistance efforts.
Find out more about the center’s research by clicking on the project links:
- QIAT-PS: Barriers and Facilitators to Assistive Technology use amongst youth with disabilities.
- PUNCH-IN: Social media use, online networking, and the transition to employment.
- ADA Success Stories: Excellence in Implementation
- ADA transition plans and their role in the development of accessible cities
Interested in learning more about the Great Lakes ADA Center research program?
QIAT- PS: Barriers and Facilitators to Assistive Technology use amongst youth with disabilites
The Quality Indicators of Assistive Technology in Postsecondary Institutions (QIAT-PS) research project examines how civil rights and self-advocacy knowledge and skills inform the experiences of students with disabilities who use assistive technology (AT) in postsecondary education. The research is conducted in conjunction with the QIAT-PS technical assistance program.
PUNCH-IN: Social Media Use, online networking, and the transition to employment
Research study – Experiences of young adults with disabilities, the internet, and work
Researchers with the Great Lakes ADA Center in the Department of Disability and Human Development at the University of Illinois at Chicago are seeking participants to complete an online survey about work, internet use, and disability rights.
Who is eligible for this study?
Survey participates must:
- Identify as having a disability.
- Be 18-24 years old.
- Work or be currently seeking employment.
- Live in the United States.
What does the research involve?
It involves an online survey that includes questions about how and where you work, how you use different social networking websites, and your familiarity with disability rights related issues. You do not need to have any prior knowledge in order to participate. Survey participants can enter a drawing for one of eight $50 Amazon gift cards.
Submit your questions via the online form for Robert Gould, PhD (Principal Investigator)
Punch-In Research Project
The Punch-in Research project is conducted to improve understanding about how youth with disabilities use online social and professional networking sites during the job search process. The purpose of this research is to explore how different forms of online technical assistance and information dissemination available on such sites can be tailored to best assist youth with disabilities learn about self-advocacy and their rights and responsibilities under the ADA. The research is conducted in conjunction with Punch-In: your self directed Employment Assistant.
ADA Success Stories: Excellence in Implementation
Research study – Disability inclusion in the context of COVID-19
The Great Lakes ADA Center is conducting research to identify emerging practices to support disability inclusion in the context of the pandemic. We are looking for members of disability employee resource or affinity groups, and diversity and inclusion professionals to interview.
Who is eligible for this study?
Interview participants must:
- Work at a large business or organization (500+ employees).
- Be at least 18 years old.
- Be a member of a disability related employee resource group at their organization and/or be a diversity and inclusion practitioner.
What does the research involve?
Participation includes a 30-40 minute interview via a web-based platform where participants are asked about their work experiences related to the employee resource group. During the interview, you will also be asked to talk about your experiences regarding disability inclusion at your organization, changes in the workplace since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, potential innovative practices for supporting disability inclusion, and insights about what resources are needed to continue to support disability inclusion in the future.
Findings will be disseminated widely through the center and various disability and business-related networks. All responses will remain confidential and anonymous, with all shared results being de-identified.
To participate, please contact:
Courtney Mullen
Research Assistant
What is the goal of this project?
The goal of this research project is to learn more the ADA implementation process from organizations that excels in compliance, implementation, and disability programming. We are interested in learning how strategies for inclusion and compliance are applied in a wide variety of settings such as businesses, institutions of higher education, state and local governments, and others.
Why is this research important?
There are different ways to achieve compliance, and also many ways to apply the broader social goal of the ADA to promote the full inclusion of people with disabilities. Organizations that have had success in their disability inclusion efforts often move beyond compliance in their organizational efforts, and have experiential knowledge to share from their implementation efforts. Sharing success stories can help others apply similar strategies to ensure that people with disabilities are fully included in different types of organizations.
How will we learn about ADA success stories plans?
This comprehensive study of excellence in ADA implementation will take place in three parts:
- First, we will conduct a scoping review and a critical analysis of national resources meant to facilitate organizational change to support the inclusion of people with disabilities across different settings (e.g. employee inclusion and diversity initiatives, trainings and technical assistance materials, campus guides and student service materials). This review will be used to generate a descriptive report of existing materials, resources, and best practices in disability inclusion.
- Next we will conduct interviews with individuals from five different stakeholder groups about their experiences in facilitating policies, practices, and/or programs that have been most successful in facilitating ADA implementation and disability inclusion. We will begin recruiting participants in the Spring of 2018. The individuals are recruited from five different stakeholder groups: (1) business representatives who have been identified through their work with the ADA centers and partners they routinely work with; (2) people with disabilities who have become established leaders within disability advocacy organization, workplace, and educational settings; (3) representatives of educational campus initiatives in charge of ADA implementation, and/or are meant to promote the full inclusion of people with disabilities into higher education; (4) representatives of businesses and organizations that have excelled in their efforts to include people with disabilities in their customer base; and (5) representatives of state and municipal governments, park districts, or recreation facilities active in ADA implementation as detailed under Title II of the ADA.
- In the final stage, we will create a survey regarding the best practices identified in the interviews. The survey will be used to establish baseline knowledge of the state of implementation in the Great Lakes region.
How will this research be used to advance knowledge and implementation of the ADA?
The results of this research will be used to develop new resources and inform technical assistance efforts. The findings will be used to create to a tool for organizations to assess their ADA implementation and disability programming efforts. Lastly, the results will inform dissemination and knowledge translation efforts, as we will create reports, plain language summaries, and a series of webinars about best practices in ADA excellence and compliance.
Who is conducting this research?
Research staff for this project includes:Principal Investigators: Robert Gould and Sarah Parker Harris
Co-Investigators: Robin Jones, Yochai Eisenberg
Research Assistants: Courtney Mullin
ADA transition plans and their role in the development of accessible cities
Read our published research article that evaluated ADA transition plans in the US
ADA transition plans and their role in the development of accessible cities
What is the goal of this project?
The goal of this research project is to describe the current status of Public Rights-of-Way (PROW) ADA transition plans in the U.S. in order to improve understanding and identify where additional resources are needed for local planning and implementation of Title II of the ADA. PROW plans focus on the locations where people walk in a community – sidewalks, paths and intersections.
Why is this research important?
All local public agencies with 50 or more employees were required to have a transition plan under Title II of the ADA. Those who build or maintain roads are required to develop a plan about their public rights-of-way. Development of these plans as been slow and it is not clear how many communities actually have a plan. The ADA transition plan can serve as an important marker that a community is ready and committed to ensuring that people with disability have equal opportunities to get around their communities and access public and private locations by walking/rolling or using public transportation.
How will we learn about ADA transition plans?
This comprehensive study of ADA transition plans will take place in three parts:
- Research staff at UIC will systematically review a representative sample of PROW ADA transition plans in the U.S. to get an idea of how many communities have plans and ‘where communities are at’ in their process of implementation. An audit tool was developed through input from an expert panel of engineers, lawyers, ADA coordinators, architects and consultants; some of whom are people with disability. This systematic review will identify 1) the percentage of Local Public Agencies (LPAs) with transition plans, 2) how much of communities’ infrastructure are still in need of improvement, 3) the characteristics of communities that have developed transition plans, 4) The level of public engagement in the development of transition plans, and 5) best practices in ADA implementation.
- The second phase of this project will involve conducting qualitative interviews with ADA coordinators and urban planning professionals involved in local government and municipal implementation to identify barriers and facilitators to self-evaluations, transition plans, and possible connections to other urban planning efforts.
- The final phase of this study will involve a geospatial analysis of the pedestrian infrastructure to better understand how the PROW transition plans lines up with what has actually been built on the ground in a sample of communities in the U.S.
How will this research be used to advance knowledge and implementation of the ADA?
The results of this research will be used to develop new resources and targeted technical assistance to local public agencies responsible for developing ADA transition plans for the public rights-of-way. The audit tool developed for the systematic review will be converted to a technical assistance tool that is useful for professional and lay audiences to examine the quality of their own transition plans or to prepare future transition plans. The resource will include best practices found as part of the review and interviews as well as ‘stories from the field’. Results from this research will be shared through ADA networks as well as professional planning and engineering networks through reports, manuscripts and plain language summaries.
Who is conducting this research?
Research staff for this project include:
- Principal Investigator: Yochai Eisenberg
- Co-Investigators: Robert Gould, Robin Jones
- Research Assistants: Amy Heider
- Volunteers: Jessica Pitts, Genesis Murillo
Contact: Yochai Eisenberg
Where the sidewalk ends: The state of municipal ADA transition planning for the public right-of-way in the Chicago region
People with disabilities are limited by barriers in the pedestrian infrastructure. The Chicago region is no doubt more accessible than it was 30 years ago when the ADA was passed. However, it is not clear that sufficient progress has been made to develop walkable and wheelable communities for all. Government entities with 50+ employees were required to develop an ADA Transition Plan, which is document where a local government assesses the conditions of the public right-of-way (e.g. sidewalks, curb-cuts, and crosswalks), finds any barriers that may be limiting access, and plans for their removal. Last year, our team conducted a national study of 401 government entities and found that only 13% had transition plans for review. As a follow-up, we partnered with the Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC) to determine the extent to which entities in the Chicago metropolitan area have developed an ADA Transition Plan. This report shows the results from a 2020 evaluation of the Chicago region’s 204 municipalities with greater than 50 employees. At the time of our assessment, we found that only 11% (22) municipalities had plans. Municipalities with plans were assessed for requirements met and overall quality. None of the collected plan satisfied all of the five ADA required elements and varied greatly in the quality. The report concludes with resources for communities and stakeholders that can be used to support more and better ADA transition planning. We hope this research can assist in furthering more inclusive and accessible communities in the Chicago area.
ADA Transition Plans Findings
Are communities in the United States planning for pedestrians with disabilities?
What is this research about?
Pathways for walking and wheeling are important for people to get to the places they want to go to and to be a part of their community. However, pathways that are broken or not built in ways that are easy for people with disabilities to use make walking or wheeling difficult. The Americans with Disabilities Act (or ADA) is a disability civil rights law that says cities and counties must make pathways, such as sidewalks, accessible for all people. Cities need to keep sidewalks wide, flat, unbroken, and make sure ramps connect the sidewalk to the street at intersections.
Cities are required to create a document, called a transition plan to identify problems with sidewalks and intersections, and plan for how to remove problems so that they are easier to use for people with disabilities. It is unclear how many communities have transition plans and if existing plans are complete or useful. The number of inaccessible pathways in communities is also not known. Because pathways are used to get to jobs, school, healthcare, and to participate in the community, it is important to know how well cities and counties are planning for and building accessible pathways. As a result, a study was designed to find out how many cities have plans and what those plans tell us about accessible pathways in the US.
What did the researchers do?
We selected a group of cities and counties from across the United States that ranged in size and community type—including urban, suburban, and rural communities. For all the cities and counties selected, we searched their websites and contacted them to find out whether or not they had a transition plan. We worked with an expert group of engineers, architects, and ADA coordinators, some of whom had a disability, and designed the Quality assessment of TrAnsition Plans or Q-TAP, an assessment tool to evaluate the transition plans we found. The Q-TAP is a list of questions that assess how well the plans meet the requirements for a transition plan and additional criteria that the expert group agreed was needed for the plan to be useful and effective. Once the plan was assessed, we combined the results to find out how well communities are doing in developing transition plans for accessible pathways.
What did we learn?
Most cities and counties do not have transition plans. While communities in the Midwest are doing better than other regions at preparing plans, the overall quality of the plans was low, meaning many cities and counties did not have all the required parts of a plan. Less than half of the plans included information about schedules, funding sources, and monitoring progress, which are needed to make a plan successful. Based on what communities shared in the plans, half of the sidewalks in these communities still need to be updated to be accessible for people with disabilities. Many communities offered a chance for the public to participate in the plan through an open commenting period but did not do much outreach. Only a few communities reached out to disability groups for input.
What is the takeaway?
Communities in the US do not have strong plans for building accessible pathways for people with disabilities. Local governments need to begin making or updating their transition plans with concrete details and timelines so that people with disabilities can get around their communities. Meaningfully involving people with disabilities in making transition plans can help cities and counties develop plans and prioritize community locations that matter most. People with disabilities and advocates can encourage their local governments to make a transition plan or can use the Q-TAP to measure the quality of their communities’ current plan.
Read about our research findings on community plans for pedestrians with disabilities:
Eisenberg, Y., Heider, A., Gould, R., & Jones, R. (2020). Are communities in the United States planning for pedestrians with disabilities? Findings from a systematic evaluation of local government barrier removal plans. Cities, 102, 102720.