1. A Regulatory Information Infrastructure with Application to Accessibility Codes Gloria Lau, Stanford University Kincho Law, Stanford University Bimal Kumar, Glasgow Caledonian University @ Include 2003

2. 1 Introduction & Motivation  Multiple sources of regulations  E.g. federal, state, local  Different formats  Conflicting ideas  Need for a repository  Locate relevant information  Need for analysis tool  Complexity of regulations  Multiple sources  Example in the next slide

3. 2 Example of Regulation Complexities ADAAG 4.7.2 Slope. …Transitions from ramps to walks, gutters, or streets shall be flush and free of abrupt changes… CBC 1127B.5.5 Beveled lip. The lower end of each curb ramp shall have a ½ inch (13mm) lip beveled at 45 degrees as a detectable way- finding edge for persons with visual impairments.  Conflicting ideas: ADAAG focuses on wheelchair traversal; CBC focuses on the visually impaired when using a cane.

4. 3 Repository development

5. 4 Feature Extraction Original section 4.6.3 from the UFAS 4.6.3* PARKING SPACES. Parking spaces for disabled people shall be at least 96 in (2440 mm) wide and shall have an adjacent access aisle 60 in (1525 mm) wide minimum (see Fig. 9). Parking access aisles shall be part of... EXCEPTION: … an adjacent access aisle at least 96 in (2440 mm) wide complying with 4.5... Refined section 4.6.3 in XML format Parking spaces for disabled people shall... If accessible parking spaces for...

6. 5 Similarity Analysis  Goal: identify similar and related sections 1. Feature matching  Concepts, measurements, etc. 2. Neighbor inclusion  Regulations are tree-structured  Reveals hidden similarity between sections based on their neighbors in the tree 3. Reference distribution  Regulations are heavily cross-referenced  Similar sections reference similar sections  Reveals hidden similarity between sections based on their references

7. 6 Preliminary Results  Phrasing difference between American and British regulations  UFAS 4.13.9 “Door Hardware”  BS8300 12.5.4.2 “Door Furniture”  Similarities between neighbors imply similarity between UFAS 4.13.9 and BS8300 12.5.4.2

8. 7 Conclusions  Regulations  Voluminous  Multiple issuing agencies  Thus we proposed an infrastructure for  Regulatory repository  Consolidated format  Feature extraction for analysis and understanding  Similarity comparison  Tree-structure used to refine similarity comparison  Identified relevance between UFAS and BS8300 “door furniture/hardware”