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LSU Retrofits for Disabled02-02-07 | News

LSU Retrofits for Disabled




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Handicap-accessible crosswalks are being installed at LSU.
Photo by Kimberly Hebert


Louisiana State University, home to our ordinance associate editor, Buck Abbey, ASLA, professor of landscape architecture, has an ongoing effort to improve handicap accessibility on campus as established by the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act.

?EUR??,,????'??Unless you’re in a wheelchair, it’s really hard to know there’s a problem,” Dennis Mitchell, the campus landscape architect, told a student paper reporter.

Construction began during the winter break, with about 40 ramps and curbs ripped up. Among the features will be putting brick with a bumpy surface at curb approaches as a tactile warning for the visually impaired. (We know of one ?EUR??,,????'??bumpy?EUR??,,????'?? system developed by Tilco Vanguard, what it calls ?EUR??,,????'??Braille for your feet,?EUR??,,????'?? or what the industry calls “truncated domes.” The Snohomish, Wash. paving company employs a strip of raised yellow buttons with a bit of bounce in them, each about the size of a silver dollar.)

The projected cost for the new curbing and ramps is $512,000. Benjamin Cornwell, associate director of disability services, indicated part of the funded is financed by a once a year $3.50 student fee. The university matched the student fee totals and the state matched the total funds.

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