On July 3, the General Services Administration (GSA) published a final rule adopting the U.S. Access Board’s Public Right-of-Way Accessibility Guidelines (PROWAG) as part of the Architectural Barriers Act Accessibility Standards (ABAAS). The Architectural Barriers Act is a civil rights law that covers most federal facilities and requires them to be accessible to people with disabilities.
All new and altered public rights-of-way that have to meet ABAAS, such as roads in a national park or streets on a Department of Veterans Affairs campus, will be required to follow these accessibility requirements. The requirements include accessibility features such as minimum sidewalk width, accessible pedestrian signals, accessible pedestrian loading zones, and accessible on-street parking.