Standards Development at ACCT Marks a Major Milestone

The Association for Challenge Course Technology (ACCT) Board of Directors is happy to report that ANSI (the American National Standards Institute) has notified us of the re-accreditation of ACCT under its recently revised Accredited Procedures for the development of ANSI standards. ACCT is an Accredited Standards Developer (ASD), and the Accredited Procedures document outlines ACCT’s procedures for organization, development, and maintenance of the ACCT’s American National Standard (ANS). 

Additionally, we can also confirm that ANSI has granted ACCT a two (2) year extension to update or reaffirm the “ANSI/ACCT 03-2019 Challenge Courses and Canopy / Zip Line Tours Standards”, which were last revised in July of 2019. As a reminder, the public comment period on a draft revision to the 2019 standards concluded in January of 2023. However, the comments received from stakeholders seemed to indicate that the draft did not represent the direction that the industry wanted to pursue at that time. Following careful consideration and lengthy discussion, primarily amongst the Board of Directors and the Consensus Group, ACCT withdrew the project in August of 2023 and the commenters were notified of its withdrawal.

Concurrently, ACCT’s Board of Directors created a joint Task Force to review the existing Accredited Procedures and propose a series of revisions to better align our Accredited Procedures with ANSI Essential Requirements, respond to ANSI audit feedback, and incorporate learnings from the recently concluded draft and comment period. The Accredited Procedures Task Force included representation from groups with diverse perspectives on our standards development process, including the Board of Directors, the Consensus Group, the TIRE (Technical Information, Research, and Education) Committee, and the ACCT staff.

The work of the Accredited Procedures Task Force was presented to the public at the ACCT Annual Conference, on an ACCT-hosted webinar, and to Consensus Group members. The Accredited Procedures Task Force presented their proposal for a revision to the Accredited Procedures to the Board of Directors in April of 2024. The ACCT Board of Directors voted unanimously to accept the revisions to the Accredited Procedures and forward them to the Consensus Group.

In August, the Consensus Group voted affirmatively to approve those updated procedures, and they were then forwarded onto ANSI for final approval. Now that the approval by ANSI has been received, ACCT can begin the exciting work of implementing the updated procedures, and educating industry stakeholders about the revised standards development process.

According to Board of Directors Chair Korey Hampton: “The standards development process at ACCT is going to look very different the next time around. Our intention with these updates has been, and will continue to be, to make the process easier to understand, to provide more opportunities for stakeholder feedback, to be more transparent about when and how to get involved, and to assure that the result represents a broad consensus of industry expertise.”

We thank everyone involved in ACCT standards development, including the dedicated volunteers who contributed to previous versions of the standards as well as the recent draft, and also to those offering their feedback. Your efforts continue ACCT’s tradition of setting and promoting the standard of care and excellence in the challenge course industry. In the coming months we will be working to implement the revised procedures, update existing information, and develop educational offerings. Stay tuned for additional updates and opportunities to participate in the process. We are very excited about the progress we have made, and we look forward to beginning a new standards project together!