The city of Evanston is seeking community input for around a planned update to its ADA transition plan.
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 offers protections to citizens with disabilities and requires employers and cities to provide reasonable accessibility accommodations.
According to Stefanie Levine, senior project manager with the Public Works Agency, the ADA requires all city governments to have a transition plan to make sure all public services are in compliance. The survey will help determine what is most needed in the city of Evanston.
“We’re asking people to help us prioritize,” Levine said. “There’s so many streets, so much infrastructure and so many programs. So we want to get a sense from the community of what they feel are the priorities and where we should focus our efforts.”
Evanston signed a contract with Altura, a Chicago-based consulting firm, in May 2021 to update the ADA transition plan. Altura has completed their facilities assessment to determine where improvements need to be made. The community survey will supplement the assessment to make a more complete plan.
The survey is intended to address all city-owned buildings and programming to make it more accessible for the public. This includes parks, operation buildings, community centers and libraries.
The survey will ask residents to select projects that they believe are the most important and require the most attention to become more accessible.
In addition to the survey, the city hosted an open house in November for residents to discuss where they believe accessibility could be improved. Levine said there will most likely be a second public engagement meeting in the spring.
After completion of the survey, city staff will begin creating drafted documents for the transition plan. Levine predicted that the final plan will go before the public and the city council next spring. Implementation of the plan, however, could take many years.
Levine said it is important that Evanston residents take the time to complete this survey to help city staff identify where to direct their attention.
“We’re taking our best guess of things, but I think this is an opportunity (for residents) to speak directly to us and give your thoughts and input to help us craft a plan that meets everyone’s needs.”
The deadline to complete the survey is Saturday, Dec. 18. The survey can be found at evanstonaccessibility.com/survey, along with a digital presentation from the November open house. All information is available in both English and Spanish.
Emily Little is a freelance reporter.