KIM PAARLBERG: Thank you. My name is Kim Paarlberg. I work for a company called the International Code Council. Which helps develop the building and safety codes for the United States. So I kind of represent the built environment which normally you wouldn't expect to see in an outdoor recreation type environment. But you do have many concerns that are related, the same contractor who built your log cabins might be building your picnic shelters as your trails go close to an edge that might be injurious, or across a stream or a canyon, you want to make sure you have those guards, still accessible, but the guards, so that everybody can feel safe, not have to be concerned about a fall so they are interrelated quite a bit.
The International Code Council, in addition to working the building codes, is also the secretariat for the accessibility technical standard. A117.1 accessible and useable buildings and facilities. And I'm the staff representative for that committee. I also had the opportunity to work with Beth on the courthouse committee for the Access Board. And so mostly I'm here to say that we would still like to continue to work with the Access Board on any developments that are happening. We're working on coordinating the building codes and the A117.1, ADA/ABA requirements, including fishing piers, golf courses, all the different aspects of the different mixture of built environment and trail environments.
So we would encourage that the examples that you were using be as close as the built environment as you can practicably be, for example, the reach range, because as I mentioned before, the same contractor, the same user is looking for that built environment or outside. And if you do need to vary that height like you need to go to nine inches for the fire surface, then perhaps guidelines could be provided -- guidance could explained why it's different. If you give person a reason then they're more likely to be happy to comply.
I would also like to encourage coordination, as much as possible, because, for example, you talked about developing criteria for rinsing showers. Well, you'll find that at beach, you also find that next to the pool that happens to have sand lot next to it. So it will stretch both back and forth between the built environment and the outdoor facilities.
And the question about the signage, we find that if you can explain to people that this is not just for the person in the wheelchair, but more of a universal access, the mom with the stroller, the person using a scooter or walker, similar to the picture we saw earlier, with the signage that showed the mom with the baby carriage next to the wheelchair access, that that will get you better compliance because they understand how you've assisted a much larger client base. And so you tend to get more of a carrot approach. So that's what I was here for, just to express our interest in, even though we represent the built environment, working in all different aspects.
PHILIP PEARCE [BOARD MEMBER]: OK, all right.
ELIZABETH STEWART [BOARD MEMBER]: Nope. Thank you, Kim, we appreciate your efforts.
PHILIP PEARCE: Yes, very much so. And of course, I would comment that if you guys had already come out with some guidelines to follow for outdoor developed areas this whole process would have been a whole lot easier.
[LAUGHTER]
Because I know we borrowed off of you extensively whenever we made the first set of accessibility guidelines. And so it was a much easier process because we had some history to work off of. And this one didn't really have any, as far as I know there wasn't anything out there.
KIM PAARLBERG: We do the built stuff. We're not so good on the fields.
PHILIP PEARCE: I know, we found out that we may not be so good on it either.
[LAUGHTER]
But we appreciate the efforts and we appreciate the offer to work cooperatively with you guys and I think that's a very good idea for us to do that so we appreciate that very much.
Thank you.