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Services for Commercial Entities

Accessibility Consulting Services. We will help you understand the Americans with Disabilities Act and other accessibility regulations and develop effective value-added compliance strategies. Our insights into the intent of the ADA and its regulations, our associations with the agencies who have created those regulations, and our experience with both the public and private sectors make us the premier architectural accessibility consulting firm on the ADA. UD&C provides a wide range of ADA and accessibility consulting services and products, including:

Facility ADA surveys/accessibility assessments of existing properties. Our team can evaluate your facility and outline steps and specific changes needed to bring your facility into compliance with the ADA and improve overall accessibility.

We can review your plans at any stage in the design and construction process and give you a detailed report, with photos, identifying accessibility issues (citing the specific guidelines, codes and regulations) and suggesting practical solutions.

We can meet with you and your design team to review and assist in resolving any issues indicated in the evaluation/survey. We can inspect your property at the “punch list” stage, and provide you with cost estimates for changes and information on accessible appliances, accessories, hardware and fixtures.

We have a time-tested quality assurance program that assures you are getting accurate, high quality information and solutions for your project every time.

If you would like to have your own staff conduct the surveys, we can help with that as well. UD&C has developed self-survey analysis systems for use by client staff and contractors. The self-survey format works well when there are multiple sites to be surveyed and the client has personnel that can handle the task. We can provide training for your personnel and customize the survey so that it collects the information that is most relevant to your situation.

We have completed hundreds of ADA facility surveys and provided consulting services in every State, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam and Canada. Our facility surveys have ranged from small retail sales outlets such as Hallmark Card stores and Mobil Oil service stations to some of the largest facilities of their type in the world including the NYC World Trade Center and the Las Vegas Excalibur Hotel. Our clients have ranged from small “mom & pop” business owners to the largest theme park developer in the world. We provide consulting services for nearly every type of facility, from historic to hi-tech and from small to large, including:

Plans Review and reviewing and assisting in the development of design documents.

UD&C provides accessibility and ADA compliance plan review services for designs created by architects, interior designers, landscape architects, contractors and other building design and construction professionals. Our in-depth knowledge of the intent of accessibility regulations enables us to help develop alternative equivalent facilitation solutions when literal compliance is not reasonable or practical. Because of our location in the Washington, DC area; our participation on the national accessibility committees; our identity as the publishers of Universal Design Newsletter; and our reputation as the nation's most knowledgeable firm in the field of Universal Design, we are keenly aware of the status and future directions of accessibility regulations and research. The largest and most renowned design firms in the country cannot match our depth and breadth of knowledge in accessibility issues and are increasingly realizing that our high quality services are the most reasonable and cost effective way for them to provide competent ADA and other accessibility design services to their clients.

Create corporate accessibility management programs that can include:

Training in ADA requirements and Universal Design alternatives. When you need a speaker on the new ADA/ABA-AG, Accessibility, Universal Design, or what’s happening with the ADA regulations in general – we can provide a knowledgeable presenter who will bring clarity and insight to the topic. Presentations are tailored to address the needs and concerns of specific audiences and can include practical advice and ideas.

We have made presentations at events from community meetings to international conferences as well as multi-day seminars and executive/technical briefings to train designers, executives, operations personnel, sales/marketing professionals, human resource specialists and students in the technical requirements of accessibility regulations the benefits of Universal Design, and the needs of people with disabilities.

We provide technical information in "down to earth" language through case examples, and concept illustrations. Our presentations are drawn from an extensive collection of material along with existing or specially gathered video and photos. Presentations can include hands on facility walk-throughs, disability awareness exercises and time for questions from the audience.

Expert witness assistance and/or testimony. UD&C provides defense and plaintiff expert witness and consulting services to both private and public entities. We can review documents; provide representation at meetings and negotiations; prepare reports; participate in depositions; offer courtroom observations and testimony; and other similar activities. Our opinions are consistent and presented in a clear straight forward manner allowing attorneys to quickly ascertain how to support their clients.

UD&C President John Salmen is a member of the ICC/ANSI A117 accessibility standard committee and represented the American Institute of Architects on the ADA Accessibility Guidelines Federal Advisory Committee. Our direct involvement in the regulatory development (ADAAG) review process provides our clients with unique insights for understanding the intent of accessibility standards and enables us to provide the widest possible range of compliance recommendations.

Telephone consultation on technical issues. Because some people need accessibility information and assistance on an immediate basis, UD&C provides printed and video material as well as telephone and on-site consultation.

Accessibility publications, software and videos. UD&C has developed a wide variety of publications and videos on the ADA, Universal Design, and accessibility. These include books, articles for periodicals, pamphlets, chapters of books, and our own Universal Design Newsletter quarterly, The 1995 Accessible Building Product Guide published by John Wiley & Sons, and The Accessible Place of Business video.