Meet Our Team

Kirk Tcherneshoff

1959-2023

Long before the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed into law, Kirk Tcherneshoff was advocating for himself and for others with disabilities.  He was injured in a car accident in 1977 and has been a wheelchair user ever since.  In 1981 he and several other students at the University of Alabama in Birmingham (UAB) founded a group for people with disabilities known as The Fellowship of Rehabilitation Counselors, Educators, and Students (FORCES) to help eliminate the barriers on campus that they dealt with everyday as they tried to attend classes.  In 1989 while Kirk was serving as the Programs Coordinator for the Birmingham Independent Living Center, he took measurements of colleague's wheelchairs, the widths of vans and lifts, and measured heights which could be reached when seated.  Many other measurements were gathered sampling different people with disabilities with varying body sizes and equipment they used.  This information was sent to the Access Board to provide comments on what would eventually grow into the ADA.

During the summer of 1992 and 1993 Kirk was trained under a special initiative by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on the regulations and standards of the ADA.  He was one of only 200 people with disabilities to finish both courses of study.  Following this training Kirk worked for Evan Terry Associates for the next 4 years providing compliance surveys, technical assistance, writing articles, and performing plan review.  In the fall of 1996, Kirk started his own ADA consulting company called Tcherneshoff Consulting, Inc.        

Kirk surveyed or conducted plan review for over 1,500 facilities across every industry. From barber shops to large resorts, restaurants to Daytona and Talladega International Motor Speedways, and from a city park to an entire municipality. Kirk was involved in ADA compliance in 40+ states across the country.  Kirk’s legacy and the foundation he built at Tcherneshoff Consulting, Inc. is carried on by the Senior Partners at the firm (Blake Watts and Laurie Yerby).

Blake Watts

Blake graduated from the University of Alabama at Birmingham with a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting. 

 His desire to work for a greater cause was influenced by the Founder of Tcherneshoff Consulting Inc., Kirk Tcherneshoff. He began training under Kirk in June of 2017 and has since dedicated his life as a full-time ADA consultant. Versed in Federal, State, and Local accessibility guidelines that include, but not limited to, 1991 ADAAG, 2010 ADA, UFAS, FHA, and DOT. Blake has now surveyed over 750 different facilities ranging from small fast food restaurants to large entertainment venues across the 50 states. Additionally, Blake has conducted plan review for large apartment complexes, hotels, recreational facilities, and entertainment venues. Blake’s  exceptional work and commitment to providing equal access, earned his place as Senior Partner & President here at TCI. 

 Blake has worked with several clients during litigation on both the defense and plaintiff side and is considered an ADA expert with deposition experience. His goal is to provide the same level of service for all clients while helping to achieve full compliance under the law.

LAURIE YERBY

Laurie is an experienced and innovative interior designer focused on accessibility in design.  She attended Mississippi State University in Starkville, MS where she graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Interior Design.  After college she moved to Washington D.C. for a year to gain experience with a design firm.    

In 2011, Laurie started work at Tcherneshoff Consulting, Inc. where she trained directly under Kirk Tcherneshoff to begin developing her knowledge of the ADA, state and local accessibility codes, and the Fair Housing Design Manual.  In the past 12 years, Laurie has been on numerous survey’s to experience in the field training as well as worked on countless architectural drawings where she has put her knowledge of AutoCAD and Revit (3D design) to good use. Her degree in interior design makes it easy for her to understand and provide plan review for all clients as well as provide conceptual drawings in 2D and 3D to help clients better understand ADA compliance.

Laurie’s exceptional ability in providing aesthetically pleasing design in accessibility, has earned her Senior Partner & Vice President here at TCI.   She wants all buildings to look beautiful and be on the cutting edge of design while maintaining accessibility in these facilities. 

Laurie has also taken on the world of website accessibility where she has worked with numerous clients to help achieve compliance with WCAG 2.0, WCAG 2.1, and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act . Her work in website accessibility has expanded over the recent years and has led to several projects involving litigation.

Steve Mason

Steve is a member of the AIA and holds NCARB certification. His architectural practice is devoted exclusively to accessibility, inclusive design, and fair housing compliance. For more than 20 years, he has performed peer review of architectural plans for other architects, to ensure that capital projects and planned new construction would be in compliance with the intricacies of civil rights law as it pertains to people with disabilities.

Steve's knowledge to the team provides commercial real estate assessment, to ascertain ADA and Fair Housing compliance for owners and prospective owners nationwide. He performs access audits of buildings and facilities, to serve as a point of departure for accessibility compliance initiatives, and has provided litigation support in the settlement of hundreds of civil rights cases along these lines. He evaluates programs, policies, and procedures, to lay the foundation for the development of comprehensive policies of inclusion.  Steve is a registered architect in six states, and holds certification and reciprocity from the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards.