DESIGN AND REMOVAL OF ARCHITECTURAL BARRIERS

THIS PROPOSAL ADDRESSES THE DEVELOPMENT OF A MODEL PLAN FOR ANALYZING ARCHITECTURAL BARRIERS AS WELL AS RECOMMENDING GENERALIZED METHODS FOR OVERCOMING SUCH BARRIERS IN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS. IT INCLUDES THE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT OF A COMPUTER DATA SOFTWARE SYSTEM WHICH WILL ORGANIZE AND STORE THE LARGE AMOUNT OF INFORMATION NEEDED INTO A MANAGEABLE RETRIEVAL SYSTEM THAT WILL GUIDE THE USER THROUGH THE DECISION MAKING PROCESS AND THE OTHER STEPS NECESSARY TO (1) IDENTIFY BARRIERS; (2) LEARN ABOUT THE STATE-OF-THE-ART DESIGN STANDARDS APPLICABLE TO THEIR PROJECT; (3) DETERMINE ALTERNATIVE POSSIBLE DESIGN SOLUTIONSFOR MEETING THE TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS OF THE STANDARDS; (4) DETERMINE OPTIMAL AS WELL AS MOST COST-EFFICIENT DESIGN SOLUTIONS; (5) IDENTIFY PRODUCTS USEFUL FOR MEETING THE TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS OF THE STANDARDS; AND (6) DETERMINECOSTS OF EACH PROPOSED OR REQUIRED ACCESSIBLE FEATURE. THE PROPOSED SYSTEM WOULD ALLOW THE USER RANDOM ACCESS TO RETRIEVE THIS INFORMATION BY SPECIFIC BUILDING TYPES AND/OR BUILDING ELEMENT. FOR PROJECTS INVOLVING RENOVATION OF EXISTING BUILDINGS, THE DATA SYSTEM WILL PROVIDE PROCEDURES TO ASSIST THE USER IN DETERMINING PRIORITIES FOR MODIFICATIONS.