Is Barnstable accessible for residents and visitors with disabilities? Town seeks input

BARNSTABLE — With an eye toward understanding, and ultimately addressing, challenges residents and visitors with disabilities may face in Barnstable, the town recently completed an Americans With Disabilities Act self-evaluation study and draft transition plan.

Now the town is inviting public input on the findings, which can be reviewed in detail at tinyurl.com/BarnstableADAselfevaluation

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"The impetus for the town of Barnstable to pursue this evaluation was to understand how Barnstable is doing specifically as it relates to our citizens' and visitors' ability to access our services, programs, website, beaches, parks, buildings and all of the town’s infrastructure," said Tammy Cunningham, the town's assistant director of human resources and its Americans With Disabilities Act coordinator.

With an active Disability Commission and an engaged community, officials already had a general sense of how the town is doing with respect to accessibility for those with disabilities.

"But we were missing a thorough, expert review to provide us with a comprehensive, formal planning document to learn what we were doing right, wrong, and what actions needed to be taken for improvement," Cunningham said.

Buildings, parks, playgrounds and more evaluated for accessibility

Last year, Barnstable received a $250,000 Massachusetts Office on Disability grant, which was used to hire the Institute for Human Centered Design to undertake the project. The Disability Commission was actively involved in the entire process developing the self-evaluation and transition plan, with Chair Paul Logan at the helm assisting with the grant application, helping create the materials, and attending numerous Zoom meetings to get updates and provide feedback.

The evaluation looked at various departmental policies in addition to 90 sites — including buildings, parks, beaches, playgrounds, marinas, parking lots and sidewalks — across the town's seven villages.

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Suggestions for various sites the institute's representatives reviewed include such actions as renovating and providing compliant curb ramps in areas where they are presently absent, renovating some toilet rooms and parking lots, renovating various ramps, providing accessible picnic tables with knee and toe clearances, providing accessible service counters at places like the Bismore Park Welcome Center, the Hyannis Youth and Community Center and Town Hall, and providing automatic door openers in places, to name a few.

All of these are detailed in the self-evaluation summary that is part of the study.

Cunningham said the review gave town officials "a deeper understanding into the thought process of inclusive design and approaches we can take to integrate best practices into our community."

One of the areas the review looked at was communication. The institute found that the town has a "solid framework" in place for meeting and responding to its obligations under the Americans with Disabilities Act, but that improvements are needed in communicating the information to staff and the public on accessibility-related matters.

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Examples include access to the town's ADA public notices, how and to whom to make a request for accommodations, placement of information on the website, ADA coordinator information and how to obtain assistive listening devices.

The review also looked at the town website, which Cunningham said "was very important to us, as our website is a critical resource we use to communicate information to the public."

"The feedback of navigation, font size, contrasting, screen readers, use of the calendar, use and accuracy of headers, as well as other items provided us with important information on modifications for our organization to review and address," she said.

The town has already followed a recommendation the organization gave to create an accessibility tab on the main website page.

Checking sidewalks, walkways for problems

Another area the organization looked at was geographic information system overlay. Cunningham explained the town puts emphasis on using geographic information systems to assist with developing and planning. As part of their work, the institute's reviewers created a geographic information system overlay map of seven miles of sidewalks and walkways throughout the town.

The overlay map highlights areas where there is deterioration in materials, as well as locations where there are excessive changes in level, uneven surfaces, lack of pedestrian signaling, issues with curb cuts, and so on.

"The creation of this overlay allows us to include these findings into road and sidewalk maintenance and redesign," Cunningham explained.

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As for infrastructure, town officials are aware the need for some improvements exist and were keen to have these areas documented.

"The  creation of the transition plan shows us the areas of prioritization and where efforts need to be focused first," said Cunningham. "We can evaluate the information by property and incorporate the information as we plan for renovation, maintenance, or redesign."

Among the institute's suggestions for town buildings is further study "to determine the feasibility of providing a compliant elevator that connects all floors at the Town Hall."

Once public comments are collected, town officials will review them and incorporate as needed into the final self-evaluation and transition plan.

How residents can weigh in on Barnstable's accessibility

"In addition, based on the types of public comments, there will be a conversation on whether a public meeting should be held to provide for further discussion," Cunningham said.

An estimated 7.7% of people in Barnstable County under age 65 have a disability as of June 2021, according to U.S. Census.

To provide comments on the draft self-evaluation and transition plan, for more information, or if you need an accommodation to access and view the document, contact Tammy Cunningham, ADA coordinator and assistant director of human resources, at 508-862-4692 or Tammy.Cunningham@town.barnstable.ma.us

The town is presently taking public comments through Friday, Oct. 21.

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Barnstable completes accessibility review, seeks public input