{"id":275,"date":"2026-09-02T10:55:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T15:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/r2d2\/?page_id=275"},"modified":"2026-09-02T11:00:31","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T16:00:31","slug":"access-ratings-for-buildings-project-arb","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/r2d2\/home\/access-ratings-for-buildings-project-arb\/","title":{"rendered":"Access Ratings for Buildings Project (ARB)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Access<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Overview<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Access Ratings for Buildings (ARB) Project, funded by the National Institute of Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research<\/a> (initially funded by NIDIRR, later renamed NIDILRR), is testing and disseminating a mobile and web-based system for providing up-to-date accessibility information about public buildings for people with disabilities, their families and friends, and building owners. The ARB system combines both ADA information and user experience ratings within one platform so that users have access to the most useful information for their particular needs. This project is being conducted in partnership with IndependenceFirst, a community disabilities-oriented organization, and with academic partners you specialize in community accessibility factors, including Columbia University, the University of New Mexico, Marquette University, Texas Woman’s University, and Washing University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Problem<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Figure 1:<\/strong> Illustration of various accessibility barriers for individuals with different disabilities.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

People with disabilities face accessibility challenges due to various physical, sensory, and cognitive obstacles both while entering and maneuvering within community buildings. People with disabilities may not know about these barriers until they encounter them, which ultimately affects their level of participation within the community. the ARB apps allow people to determine which establishments will best serve their needs, plan alternatives, bring assistance, or avoid particular barriers. ARB is a collection of simple, portable evaluation and reporting tools that will enable building assessors to broadcast details about any building’s accessibility. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Goal: Accessibility Information about Public Buildings<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Figure 2:<\/strong> Photo of an individual using AR-B application on their phone.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

ARB users first create a profile, allowing the system to personalize the display of building information that is most related to their specific accessibility needs. Users may choose to view summary reports or navigate through the details, with information provided from other people with disabilities and building visitors who have shared personal accessibility testimonials and ratings for buildings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Building data is populated by building visitors with accessibility needs as well as trained accessibility evaluators. Users share comments and rate as many (or as few) of the building’s accessibility features (or lack thereof) as they like. Trained building evaluators perform a comprehensive assessment of the building’s publicly visited areas, collecting a significant number of objective measurements. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"ARB
Figure 3:<\/strong> ARB data generation and consumption flowchart demonstrating the flow of accessibility rating information from data collectors to data users<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the above figure, Data Collectors use mobile platforms to input building accessibility data into the ARB apps. Personal Profiles created by users are used to filter building accessibility data and generate personalized UD-4-Me reports for each user. Expert-created profiles for common impairments are used to filter the building accessibility for general UD-4-All reports, which summarize the building’s accessibility for a range of impairments. The reports are then made available to Data Users. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Current Work<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The ARB team has development a taxonomy specific to restaurants. This taxonomy includes user demographics, building types, general building elements, detailed ADAAG requirements and additional functional building elements related to accessibility, and a subjective experience rating domain for building elements. These data are organized and structurally integrated to create both data collection and reporting interfaces for three major user groups:<\/p>\n\n\n\n