2021 ADA Transition Plan Update

The City of Orlando 2021 ADA Transition Plan Update documents the existing conditions of the City’s public rights‐of‐way (PROW) and identifies the improvements necessary to make them accessible and usable for persons with disabilities.

This Transition Plan Update is pursuant to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which requires that all public agencies perform a self‐evaluation and develop and update a transition plan to improve all PROW, for pedestrian access. Key infrastructure components of these Pedestrian Access Routes are the city's sidewalks, curb ramps, pedestrian crosswalks, and pedestrian signalization.

The purpose of this report is to update the City’s 2018 ADA Transition Plan. The primary focus of this Transition Plan Update falls within Title II of ADA and deals primarily with accessibility on public rights‐of‐way (PROW) owned and/or maintained by the City of Orlando.

The Self‐Assessment portion of this Transition Plan Update contains detailed summaries of the estimated number of physical barriers along the Pedestrian Access Routes within the PROW and the projected budgetary costs necessary to mitigate those barriers.

The PROW includes routes used by pedestrians and adjacent private property (e.g., residential and commercial driveways, utility poles and vaults, guy wires, and storm drains) that connect to and from public sidewalks and streets. 

The ADA Transition Plan Update has been prepared pursuant to the ADA, which requires that all public agencies develop a transition plan for installing curb ramps, sidewalks, and related facilities within the PROW.

This plan includes a detailed survey of the physical barriers found in the PROW under the City’s jurisdiction. It also includes a plan, schedule, and recommended procedures for removing these barriers in order to achieve program access.

A primary component of the ADA Transition Plan is the self‐evaluation, which includes an inventory of the existing pedestrian facilities within the city public rights‐of‐way (PROW).

In 2008, the city performed a comprehensive inventory of existing sidewalks and curb ramps in order to determine where there were gaps and deficiencies in the city’s pedestrian access routes. These gaps and deficiencies identified in 2008 have been used by city staff as a baseline for the planning and construction of  sidewalk and curb ramp improvements for the subsequent 10 years as the City worked to comply with ADA requirements until completion of the 2018 ADA Transition Plan Update. 

As part of this 2021 Transition Plan Update, the city selected Southeastern Surveying and Mapping Corporation (SSMC) to perform a new baseline assessment of facilities and barriers and prepare a 2021 update to the city’s 2018 ADA Transition Plan which documents the work performed by the city to comply with ADA requirements and prepare an updated set of  budgetary cost estimates which can be used to estimated projected future costs for compliance.

The City of Orlando is engaged in an ongoing effort to construct and repair sidewalks, curb ramps, and other facilities at numerous locations throughout the city.

This construction activity involves several types of projects, including street overlay projects, streetscape projects, utility construction projects and other Capital Improvement Projects within the Public Rights‐of‐Way. 

While it is important to ensure that standards used to design sidewalks, curb ramps, and related improvements are current, it is equally important to monitor construction to ensure that the construction is performed according to the approved specifications.

The monitoring of construction activities and reporting of the status of improvements is vital to ensure an effective overall ADA compliance program.

The 2021 ADA Transition Plan Update also include the development of a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) database of pedestrian  facilities and deficiencies which public works staff can use to record the improvements observed by monitoring  these construction activities and for tracking the status of ADA compliance throughout the City.

By updating this database as improvements are made along the pedestrian access routes, the city will always have a current model representing the status of the city’s ADA compliance which can be used to continuously track remaining necessary improvements.

The 2021 ADA Transition Plan Update presents a prioritized list specific items of work to repair or replace the  sidewalks and curb ramps that are not compliant with the ADA.

This plan anticipates an approximate 20‐year implementation period to fully achieve compliance with ADA program accessibility requirements. Because of the large number of elements identified for improvement, this approach determined that there was a need to prioritize projects to allow for phased implementation.

Some improvements will be implemented as part of other ongoing projects, including Capital Improvement Projects (CIP), resurfacing, safety improvements, and private commercial land development work completed along the city’s roadways. As noncompliant elements are addressed, they will be removed from the list of noncompliance.

In the case of the public rights‐of‐way, improved pedestrian facilities will be designed to meet the latest Public Rights‐of‐Way Accessibility Guidelines (PROWAG). When it is not possible to meet these guidelines, projects will, at a minimum, meet ADA Accessibility Guidelines (ADAAG).

View the documents of the plan