The following is a list of Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) related trainings and presentations offered by SIA. These learning opportunities are available at your offices, in our training room or out at your school sites.

ADA Coordinator – The Basics

Understanding the basic ADA concepts is the first step in ensuring your district is meeting its responsibilities under the law. Designed for school district ADA Coordinators, this presentation will benefit any district or school administrative staff. Subjects discussed include a brief review of disability discrimination laws, ADA Title II administrative requirements, facility accessibility, service animals, the complaint process and more.


Presentation Objectives

  • Learn about “program accessibility” – the guiding ADA principle for public schools
  • Enhance staff knowledge to reduce potential for complaints and to improve outcomes
  • Review the easy steps any district can take to help reduce risk exposure

Program length: 1 hour

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Service Animals at Schools

What is the difference between an emotional support animal and a service animal? What staff questions and actions are allowable? Do the same rules apply to everyone? Can districts require individuals with animals to sign a liability waiver form? Review these and many other common questions in this in-depth review of service animals on school campuses.


Presentation Objectives

  • Learn about the core ADA Title II service animal rules
  • Discuss appropriate staff interactions, questioning and liability concerns
  • Explore and review various potential service animal on campus situations
    • Program length: 1.5 hours

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Project Manager's Guide to Accessible School Parking Areas and Entrances (Online)

This comprehensive online video training provides detailed information on ADA/California Building Code conformance in school parking lots and pedestrian entrances.  Designed for school project managers, the program contains interactive features, loads of real world examples and graphic demonstrations.  The “PMG” is an easy-to-use building standards visual reference guide that you can come back to again and again.  


Presentation Objectives

  • Introduction – General ADA requirements and principles
  • Planning and Scoping – Site review and project development
  • Design – Preferred design practices
  • Construction – Conformance monitoring and verification

Program length: Four 20-25 minute videos

Start Program Manager's Guide

School Campus Accessibility (Field Training)

This new program takes the training out of the building code binders and into your own schools! In this small group training, we will site walk up to three schools and review in detail the ADA and California Building Code (CBC) compliance findings. District M&O and Facilities project managers responsible for building and maintaining school facilities will particularly benefit from this out-of-the classroom experience.


Training Objectives

  • Update staff on current ADA/CBC accessibility building standards in a practical hands-on setting
  • Explore real-world example compliance findings in both older and post 2000’s schools
  • Discuss the how’s and why’s of access requirements in an open and interactive small group
  • Review installation tips, addressing existing findings and prioritizing remediation work

Program length: 4 hours

Request School Campus Accessibility field training

School Campus Accessibility (In-class Presentation)

Accessibility building standards are very detailed and do change over time. In this session, we will bring your M&O and Facilities staff up to speed on the current ADA/CBC standards and review significant code changes in recent years. We will also analyze accessibility survey reports from 20 schools built since 2005 to learn how best to avoid common compliance findings. Pair this classroom presentation with the School Campus Accessibility field training for a comprehensive educational program.


Presentation Objectives

  • Update and refresh ADA/CBC accessibility building knowledge to current standards
  • Review the importance of design that sets up construction for compliance success
  • Explore the most common, most costly and most risk-concerning compliance findings and how to avoid them
  • Overview core play area accessibility requirements

Program length: 3 hours

Request School Campus Accessibility presentation

Playground Inspections for Safety & Accessibility

What is the difference between a play area inspection and an audit? How did the 2010 ADA Standards change the requirements for school playgrounds? How is project planning different for safety than for accessibility? In this presentation, we will provide an overview of safety and accessibility evaluations and share many of our own photo examples from the field. Options are available for presentation only or presentation combined with a field training at one of your schools.


Presentation Objectives

  • Overview the general Certified Playground Safety Inspection (CPSI) evaluation requirements
  • Demonstrate safety finding examples on both older equipment and brand new installations
  • Analyze the four major elements of what makes a play area accessible
  • Discuss appropriate project planning for play area alterations and new construction

Program length: 1 hour presentation (2 to 2.5 hours with field training)

Request Playground Safety and Accessibility presentation

Website Accessibility: Schools and the Updated Section 508 Standards

Our society’s increasing reliance on the internet and online communications has dramatically changed what accessibility means in today’s world. In this presentation, we will review the meaning of website accessibility, specific Section 508 regulatory requirements and the steps your district can take to make website content equivalently available and functional for all users.


Presentation Objectives

  • Understand what makes a website’s content and functions usable to a person with a disability
  • Review the four key principles of website accessibility
  • Discuss the Website Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and Rehabilitation Act Section 508 standards
  • Learn basic website access evaluation techniques and discuss more advanced web access assessments including audits for certification

Program length: 1 hour

Request Website Accessibility presentation