National Experience. Custom Solutions.

ADA One is a consulting firm drawing on the three decades of disability rights experience of Irene Bowen, J.D.

It offers one source for learning about and complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and related laws.

NOTE: The firm is not accepting new clients and plans to finish current projects by the end of 2022. Our current focus is on developing “Corada Pro,” an ADA self-evaluation and compliance app, with Evan Terry Associates.

Consultants

Founder, Irene Bowen

ADA One consulting grows from President Irene Bowen’s thirty years of experience – and results – as Deputy Chief of the Disability Rights Section at the U.S. Department of Justice and as Deputy General Counsel of the U.S. Access Board. She achieved ADA compliance through landmark litigation, settlements, and education.

Ms. Bowen doesn’t just know, study, and apply the laws and regulations – she wrote and enforced many of their provisions. She understands what’s behind them. She grasps what the federal government expects for compliance, how it operates, and what it may do next.

Larry J. Goldberg

Larry J. Goldberg, JD, CHC, joined ADA One, LLC, as a partner, in September 2013.

Mr. Goldberg was most recently the Principal Deputy Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). He now applies his experience, expertise, and collaborative approaches to advancing compliance with the ADA, returning to the area in which he began his legal career. Prior to joining HHS, he had served as Associate Legal Director of the National Center for Law and Deafness, had litigated cases on behalf of individuals with disabilities for the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, and had been an Assistant Attorney General for the Maryland State Department of Health.

Collaboration with Others

ADA One has collaborative relationships with experts in specialized fields – such as architecture, accessibility of web sites, information technology, employment, and housing – and draws on their services when they’re needed.

Our Services

ADA One provides ADA consulting, speaking, and compliance assessment services to public and private entities for titles II and III of the ADA, as well as assistance with section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and other disability rights laws.

Why ADA One?

Working with ADA One, you can —

Get all your ADA help from one place — from us directly or in alliance with other experts
Learn from national leaders and acclaimed disability law experts
Position yourself for success at a time of change
- New requirements under the law and regulations
- Changing environments
- Tighter budgets
Find out what federal officials expect from businesses and state and local governments
Devise solutions that meet those expectations and that work for your setting and budget
Resolve problems before they become lawsuits

Those We Serve

ADA One provides presentation, training, consulting, and compliance assessment services to

A Range of Services

You can choose from a full menu of services, tailored to your needs.

Training and presentations
“Snapshot” or in-depth assessments of services, programs, and facilities
Self-evaluations, transition plans, barrier removal plans
Advancing organizations’ interests
Support in avoiding or responding to complaints, lawsuits, or government investigations
Conflict resolution and settlement monitoring

New No-Cost Self-Evaluation Readiness Checklist - August 2021

How do you know if you’re ready to start a full-fledged self-evaluation or update an existing one? Here’s a simple way to find out.

If your government entity (for example, state or local government, state or local college or university) has never done a self-evaluation, or even if you have but it has been years since you updated it, you may want to first assess your “readiness.” You may not have policies and procedures in place, or maybe they’re in place but staff and managers haven’t been trained. Starting a self-evaluation under those circumstances may not be fruitful; it could result in most of the answers to survey questions being “no” or “I don’t know,” which would take you back to square one.

The Corada/ADA One “Self-Evaluation Readiness Checklist” is a no-cost tool that asks 25 questions and gives you a “readiness” score. You can complete it on paper, with a fillable pdf document; or by marking your scores on paper and adding them up; or electronically through Corada. It was developed by ADA One and Corada.

The checklist asks whether you have certain policies and procedures and whether you have trained managers and staff about them. You choose the correct answers to each question (from four multiple-choice answers offered), and calculate your score. You’ll know if (1) you’re ready to do a self-evaluation, (2) you need to do a little more work before you undertake a full self-evaluation (putting policies into place, training managers and staff), or (3) work is needed before a self-evaluation will provide useful information.

It’s that easy. You also get a guide to using the checklist, templates such as sample notice and grievance procedures, and tip sheets on topics like service animals, interpreters, and making meetings accessible.

Visit the online version!

And once you’re ready to do a self-evaluation, you can subscribe to new software through Corada that will take you through a complete assessment with electronic surveys.

ADA One can help you get your bearings, spend your limited resources in a way that makes sense for you, and plan for compliance.

Highlights and Publications

ADA One Self-Evaluation Readiness Checklist, with guide, tip sheets, and templates, 2021
Los Angeles Unified School District Self-Evaluation and Transition Plan, 2017
Access to Justice for People with Disabilities: A Guide for Georgia Courts, ADA Coordinator’s Office, State of Georgia, 2017
Renewing the Commitment, An ADA Compliance Guide for Nonprofits, published by the Chicago Community Trust, 2011, and updated 2015. The guide reflects the 2010 DOJ regulations, with best practices, tip sheets, and extensive resources. Read more about the guide
Fulton County: Full Access Ahead, ADA One’s report under Phase One of the Self-Evaluation and Transition Plan of Fulton County, Georgia, which surrounds Atlanta, 2012, and Forging Ahead, ADA One’s report on the corrective actions successfully implemented to correct deficiencies previously identified, 2017
Compliance Guides for Serving Students Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing in Postsecondary Institutions, pepnet 2/National Deaf Center on Postsecondary Outcomes: contributing or principal author of five out of eight guides, 2015 and 2017
The American Experience: What Makes the ADA Work, and What Are the Implications for Implementation of Germany’s Accessibility Laws? Conference on Legal Instruments for the Enforcement of Accessibility for Disabled Persons in Kassel, Germany, November 2012
Building Georgia’s Future: Accessibility as a Customer–Oriented Culture, 2011 Update to the Technical Assistance Manual, State of Georgia
ADA: Past, Present, Future, keynote speech on the 20th anniversary of the ADA at AHEAD, July 2010, “Higher education is a microcosm of society as a whole, and it is often at the forefront of developing issues. Let’s take a broad view of where we are, how we got here, and where we might be going – with a glimpse at some issues particular to higher education.”

Projects and Clients

ADA One has –

Advised entities such as the Coca-Cola Company, Princeton University, and Columbia University about ADA issues
Worked with Mankato State University, the City of Chicago, the County of Fulton, Georgia, the Los Angeles Unified School District, the State of Texas, and other local governments to develop self-evaluations and transition plans
Worked with prominent private health care providers, including the University of Southern California and USC Care Medical Group and the Northwestern University Medical Faculty Foundation, to advise them about and/or assess their policies and practices. Read more about health care
Provided ADA training for the staff of Montgomery County (Maryland), the City of Chicago, and Mankato State University; faculty and staff of the Grand Rapids Community College, Polk College, Cornell University, and Columbia University; and numerous national, state, and local organizations. See more about training and speaking services
On an international level, addressed the history, strengths, and weaknesses of the ADA and its accessibility and enforcement provisions. See Irene Bowen’s paper reflecting her presentation to the Conference on Legal Instruments for the Enforcement of Accessibility for Disabled Persons in Kassel, Germany, November 2012: The American Experience: What Makes the ADA Work, and What Are the Implications for Implementation of Germany’s Accessibility Laws? (to be published in September 2013)

Authored or co-authored three ADA guides: one for non-profits, one about facilities, and one about access to the courts (pending publication).