Bill Hecker


Architect and Accessible Design Consultant
ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) Consulting

Biography


Bill is an architect (registered in Colorado, Alabama, Louisiana and Georgia) who practices nationwide in the field of accessible design and ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) Consulting. His interest in accessible design began in college when he was on the winning design team for the 1983 Int'l. Special Olympics Village Competition at Louisiana State University, and he continued his involvement as a volunteer sports instructor serving those with Spina Bifida. While an architect at the Birmingham, Alabama firm of Evan Terry Associates, Bill spearheaded the ADA Consulting/Training efforts and was primary author of two books on ADA facility compliance (published by John Wiley & Sons - NY). He has conducted more than 100 public and private seminars on ADA/Accessibility compliance and surveyed more than 100 million square feet for access barriers. While with Evan Terry Associates, Bill consulted with or trained staff from IBM, Duke University, Rockwell International, MARTA (Metro Atlanta Regional Transit Authority), Georgia Tech University, Shoney's Restaurants, United Way and the American Banker's Association - just to name a few. Bill left Evan Terry in 1992 to start his own practice and has since split his energies among three broad areas - consulting on facility compliance requirements of federal laws (ADA, Fair Housing Act, ABA and Section 504 requirements of the Rehabilitation Act); training governmental and private organizations on those laws; and, acting as an expert witness/consultant to the US Department of Justice, private plaintiffs and defense attorneys on ADA and Fair Housing facility compliance cases.