A Standardized Assessment Process Supporting Health, Environmental and Economic Benefits of Outdoor Recreation Facilities to Rural Americans

The goal of the Developed Outdoor Recreation Assessment Process (DORAP) will be to create a reliable and repeatable method for evaluating 18 different types of constructed features in outdoor recreation areas for compliance with applicable federal guidelines. On-line and in-person training and certification will be made available through a partnership with American Trails, a not-for-profit trails organization for all trail types. Guidance for disseminating the results of site assessments will be created and ADA transition plan templates will be created to assist with meeting accessibility requirements. This project will create an efficient, reliable, and accurate assessment process to determine if outdoor recreation elements meet accessibility guidelines. Travel monies for city, county, state and Federal agencies are limited so everyone from Scout Troops to professional assessment coordinators need on-line training and certification to ensure that valid assessments of outdoor recreation facilities are conducted. Electronic templates will be created to efficiently and accurately collect the data on mobile devices. The data can then be collected for land managers so that they can use it to meet their ADA obligations by creating transition plans and to schedule access improvements. Data can also be collected and made available to the public so accessible facilities can be easily identified. Congress mandated an evaluation of accessibility to outdoor recreation on federally managed lands in 1998 and the results highlighted that many federal agency units had not completed their transition plans. To add to the problem, no standardized format has been adopted for outdoor recreation transition plans. This project will develop and validate a standard method for assessing, disseminating, and planning the corrective action of constructed features in our nation & #39;s outdoor recreation areas. DORAP will be used by managers of public and private recreation areas to assess the accessibility of their facilities. DORAP will be used by product manufacturers to make sure their products are accessible for marketing purposes and avoid liability if they are not. DORAP will be used by private accessibility inspectors who will be able to obtain the training, certification, and tools they need to perform accessibility assessment services in the outdoor environment.