MERIDIAN TOWNSHIP - With every passing year it is becoming more and more of a priority to make an entire community accessible for all.

Intersections are a priority as well as the lips on the curbs. Even the grade of the sidewalk has a bearing on a piece of land being compliant or not. For an entire community to be "walkable" a number of renovations would need to be made.

Meridian Township's Director of Public Works & Engineering, Ray Severy, sheds some light on why these changes are important.

"We want to be a walkable community, which is for all people. People with wheelchairs people who are disabled or whatever. So by that standpoint we want to keep our sidewalks safe and easy to use," said Severy.

Another specification for sidewalks is the presence of objects called "tactile plates". Those plates are the nubby strips of pavement that you see right before the sidewalk ends. Those are used to help notify the visually impaired that there is an intersection ahead of them.

The surface of the pavement is also an issue as there are some strips of sidewalk that have a very steep left-to-right or down/uphill grade. For a sidewalk to be compliant, a 2% left to right grade, and an 8% incline or decline is all that is allowed by federal law.

For a community to be ADA compliant, the restrictions not only go to elevators and automatic doors, but the slope of the sidewalk we walk on, the lip of the curb and even the stubble leading up to an intersection.

Projects to bring the area in to compliance will be taking place every year to keep up with growing demands from the federal level.