LAIRA Sidewalks & Curb Ramps Compliance Matrix¶
Layered Autonomous Inference and Reasoning Agent | Airwai, Inc. Prepared May 11, 2026
Purpose¶
This document maps LAIRA's inspection capabilities against the Public Right-of-Way Accessibility Guidelines (PROWAG, 2023 final rule), the legal compliance backbone under 28 CFR Part 35 (ADA Title II), and the 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design (Chapter 4) where PROWAG is not yet adopted by the relevant jurisdiction.
It is intended for municipal public-works departments, plaintiffs' counsel and court-appointed monitors in ADA consent decrees (Willits-class), premises-liability insurance carriers, and AEC primes scoping ADA Transition Plans or sidewalk-repair packages.
Headline finding. Sidewalk and curb-ramp condition is fundamentally a geometric assessment (cross slope, running slope, flare slope, vertical discontinuity, surface openings) rather than a distress-type assessment. LAIRA's LiDAR DEM resolves elevation to ±3 mm and slope to ±0.1%, both below every threshold tabulated in PROWAG. The remaining work is the end-to-end report pipeline that translates per-segment geometric measurements into the format counsel, monitors, and city engineering staff consume.
Governing standards¶
| Standard | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| PROWAG (2023 Final Rule) | Public Right-of-Way Accessibility Guidelines | Primary geometric tolerances |
| 28 CFR Part 35 | ADA Title II — Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability in State and Local Government Services | Legal compliance backbone |
| 2010 ADA Standards | Chapter 4: Ramps and Curb Ramps | Used where PROWAG is not yet adopted |
| 36 CFR Part 1190 | Access Board codification of PROWAG | Federal-aid procurement reference |
Status legend¶
See the shared status legend. Icons: ✅ Meets, ✅+ Exceeds, 🔄 In Development, 🔶 Partial, ℹ️ Different Paradigm.
PROWAG geometric compliance¶
| Requirement | PROWAG Reference | LAIRA Capability | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pedestrian access route (PAR) cross slope ≤2% | R302.6 | LiDAR cross-section ± 0.1% slope resolution | 🔄 |
| PAR running slope ≤5% (where not within street/highway ROW) | R302.5 | LiDAR longitudinal-profile slope per segment | 🔄 |
| Curb-ramp running slope ≤8.33% (1:12) | R304.2.2 | LiDAR longitudinal-profile slope on ramp segments | 🔄 |
| Curb-ramp flare slope ≤10% (1:10) | R304.3.2 | LiDAR side-profile slope on ramp flares | 🔶 |
| Surface vertical discontinuities ≤¼ in (or ≤½ in with bevel ≤1:2) | R302.7.2 | LiDAR DEM differential at sidewalk-panel joints (±3 mm) | 🔄 |
| Surface openings (gratings, drainage grates, expansion joints) ≤½ in | R302.7.3 | LiDAR + RGB segmentation of gratings and expansion joints | 🔶 |
| Detectable warning surfaces — geometry, color, placement | R305 | RGB segmentation + LiDAR depth profile for truncated domes | 🔶 |
| Clear width ≥48 in for PAR (≥36 in passing space) | R302.3, R302.4 | LiDAR + RGB segmentation of clear-path obstructions | 🔄 |
| Curb ramp landing — clear space ≥48 × 48 in at top | R304.2.1 | LiDAR + RGB segmentation; slope check on landing surface | 🔄 |
| Counter slope at curb ramps ≤5% | R304.5.3 | LiDAR slope across the gutter pan | 🔄 |
Consent-decree workflows¶
The Willits v. City of Los Angeles 2016 federal settlement is the largest active US municipal sidewalk ADA consent decree ($1.4B over 30 years, ~280,000 class members, 120-day class-member access-request response clock). Analogous obligations exist in Chicago, New York, Seattle, San Jose, Sacramento. LAIRA's role in these workflows:
| Workflow element | Settlement-mandate origin | LAIRA Capability | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Continuous-scan baseline of city-owned ROW | Court-approved settlement and monitor requirements | Sidewalk-scan workflow at posted vehicle speed, ROW-wide coverage in a single mobilization | ✅ |
| On-demand re-scan within compliance window | 120-day class-member access-request clock | Per-request rescan; dated, geotagged, citation-chained deliverable in the court-approved evidence format | ✅ (workflow), 🔄 (geometric pipeline) |
| Pass-over-pass change detection (before / after repair) | Independent monitor verification | LAIRA per-detection change detection between passes; quantitative repair-effectiveness scoring | ✅ |
| Audit-ready evidence package | Plaintiffs' counsel, monitor, court | Structured per-segment records with SHA-256 evidence digests, reference imagery, GPS to ±2 cm | ✅ |
Buyer segments¶
| Segment | Primary need | LAIRA posture |
|---|---|---|
| City public works (LA Bureau of Engineering, Chicago CDOT, NYC DOT, Seattle SDOT) | Network-wide condition baseline; defensible capital-prioritization data | Continuous-scan baseline is operational; full PROWAG geometric pipeline in development (P0) |
| Plaintiffs' counsel (DHKL on Willits and analogs) | Compliance evidence with traceable audit chain | Per-detection records with evidence digests and citation chain; data-room delivery format |
| Court-appointed monitor | Independent verification of remediation progress | Pass-over-pass change detection with reproducible scoring methodology |
| AEC primes (AECOM, Jacobs, HDR, regional sidewalk specialists) | Pre-bid scoping data; QA/QC data during execution | Sell the pre-scanned dataset as part of their existing scope; eliminates the "go scan" procurement step |
| Premises-liability insurance (Travelers, Liberty Mutual, Chubb, Zurich Municipal, CSAC-EIA, Munich Re) | Per-address sidewalk-condition risk data for underwriting; date-stamped imagery for claims forensics | Dated per-address sidewalk-condition data operational; underwriting-feed packaging in development |
What LAIRA does not replace¶
| Capability | Why not replaced |
|---|---|
| ADA architectural compliance audit | LAIRA measures geometry; the final Title II / Title III legal determination is the role of a certified accessibility specialist and counsel |
| Detectable-warning surface tactile certification | LAIRA can detect placement and surface geometry; tactile-pattern compliance verification under specific load conditions remains an in-person check |
| ABA Accessibility Standards conformance for federal facilities | LAIRA's PROWAG output feeds ABA conformance reviews, but the formal ABA determination is a federal-agency-level process |
Sensor and data output¶
For the underlying sensor specs, measurement resolutions, and output schemas, see the Product Reference section:
- Sensor Stack — LiDAR, RGB, RTK GNSS, IMU + VIO
- Detection Pipeline — Five primitives (crack, elevation, texture, segmentation, zone-context)
- Output Formats — Per-segment PROWAG geometric records, sidewalk condition reports
Source documents¶
Every cited standard resolves to an entry in the source registry with primary URL, mirror locations, and last-verified date. Key entries: prowag-2023, cfr-28-35, ada-2010-standards.
LAIRA: Objective. Auditable. Standards-aligned. Airwai, Inc. | info@airwai.com