ADAMS, Mass. — The town is working on a plan to address accessibility for residents from parks to Town Hall to its website. But so far it's doing a good job in making its public area accessible. 

 

"Adams, for all the buildings, is in very good shape. I think it's clear that for years, this town has definitely taken their ADA responsibility, seriously," Andrew McKeever told the Selectmen at their meeting last week. "There's nothing really egregious that's out there."

 

McKeever, a community planner with the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission, was updating the Selectmen on the progress in identifying areas of need.

 

The BRPC is helping Adams conduct a self-evaluation to identify barriers that exist for disabled residents to programs and services and develop a transition plan to bring it into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The project is being funded through a Massachusetts Office of Disability grant. 

 

"You identify and inventory all the barriers that exist ... You take all those and you create a priority list of what to address and when you can address it over time," explained McKeever. "The Department of Justice recommends that these plans are updated every three years. So the reason why these are important is because it is a legal requirement that communities have these and that they are making sure that their services are accessible." 

 

Creating plans also help with long-term capital spending and are prerequisite for funding through the Massachusetts Office of Disability, he continued. "Once you create one of these plans, you are now eligible to apply for the implementation grants with MOD. And therefore some of these capital projects that you're looking at, MOD will be a resource for those." 

 

McKeever said this is important also because 17.5 percent of the town's population self-identified as having a disability on the census. That doesn't count the number of people who may have a disability but didn't identify it, or who may have a short-term disability.