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The
ADA touches all aspects of our lives
The
ADA touches all aspects of our lives
The
American Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits discrimination against disabled
individuals in many areas of life outside the employment arena.
Below are listed additional resources for where additional
information is available. If
you are a disabled individual or have the possibility of becoming disabled,
you should be familiar with the provisions of these federal laws which can
help protect you in almost all aspects of your life.
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in employment, state and
local government, public accommodations, commercial facilities,
transportation, and telecommunications. The act also applies to the United
States Congress.
To be protected by ADA, one must have a
disability or have a relationship or association with an individual with a
disability. An individual with a disability is defined by ADA as a person
who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or
more major life activities, a person who has a history or record of such
impairment, or a person who is perceived by others as having such
impairment. ADA does not specifically name all the impairments that are
covered.
ADA Title I: Employment requires employers
with 15 or more employees to provide qualified individuals with disabilities
with an equal opportunity to benefit from the full range of
employment-related opportunities available to others. For example, it
prohibits discrimination in recruitment, hiring, promotions, training, pay,
social activities, and other privileges of employment. It restricts
questions that can be asked about an applicant's disability before a job
offer is made, and it requires that employers make reasonable accommodation
to the known physical or mental limitations of otherwise qualified
individuals with disabilities, unless the accommodation results in undue
hardship for the employer. Religious entities with 15 or more employees are
covered under title I.
Title I complaints must be filed with the
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) within 180 days of the
date of discrimination, or within 300 days if the charge is filed with a
designated state or local fair employment practice agency. Individuals may
file a lawsuit in federal court only after they receive a right-to-sue
letter from EEOC.
Charges of employment discrimination on the
basis of disability may be filed at any EEOC field office. Field offices are
located in 50 cities throughout the United States and are listed in most
telephone directories under "U.S. Government." For the appropriate
EEOC field office in your geographic area, call
(800)
669-4000 (voice)
(800) 669-6820 (text telephone)
www.eeoc.gov
You can obtain publications and information
on EEOC-enforced laws by calling
(800) 669-3362
(voice)
(800) 800-3302 (text telephone)
For information on how to accommodate a
specific individual with a disability, contact the Job Accommodation Network
at
(800)
526-7234 (voice/relay)
http://www.janweb.icdi.wvu.edu/english
Activities of state and local governments
are covered under Title II of the ADA, which covers all activities of state
and local governments, regardless of the entity's size or whether it
receives federal funding. Title II requires that state and local governments
give people with disabilities an equal opportunity to benefit from all of
their programs, services, and activities, such as public education,
employment, transportation, recreation, health care, social services,
courts, voting, and town meetings.
State and local governments are required to
follow specific architectural standards in the new construction and
alteration of their buildings. They also must relocate programs or otherwise
provide access in inaccessible older buildings, and they must communicate
effectively with people who have hearing, vision, or speech disabilities.
Public entities are not required to take actions that would result in undue
financial and administrative burdens. They are required to make reasonable
modifications to policies, practices, and procedures where necessary to
avoid discrimination, unless they can demonstrate that doing so would
fundamentally alter the nature of the service, program, or activity being
provided.
Complaints of title II violations may be
filed with DOJ within 180 days of the date of discrimination. In certain
situations, cases may be referred to a mediation program sponsored by DOJ.
DOJ may bring a lawsuit where it has investigated a matter and has been
unable to resolve violations. For more information, contact:
Disability
Rights Section
Civil Rights Division
U.S. Department of Justice
P.O. Box 66738
Washington, DC 20035-6738
(800) 514-0301 (voice)
(800) 514-0383 (text telephone)
www.usdoj.gov/crt/ada/adahom1.htm
Title II may also be enforced through
private lawsuits in federal court. It is not necessary to file a complaint
with DOJ or any other federal agency, or to receive a right-to-sue letter,
before going to court.
Title II also requires that public
transportation authorities may not discriminate against people with
disabilities in the provision of their services. They must comply with
requirements for accessibility in newly purchased vehicles, make good-faith
efforts to purchase or lease accessible used buses, remanufacture buses in
an accessible manner, and, unless it would result in an undue burden,
provide paratransit where they operate fixed-route bus or rail systems.
Paratransit is a service through which persons who are unable to use the
regular transit system independently (because of a physical or mental
impairment) are picked up and dropped off at their destinations. The
transportation provisions of title II cover The transportation provisions of
title II cover public transportation services, such as city buses,
and public rail transit, such as subways, commuter rails, and Amtrak.
Questions and complaints about public
transportation should be directed to:
Federal
Transit Administration
U.S. Department of Transportation
400 Seventh Street, SW
Washington, DC 20590
(888) 446-4511 (voice/relay)
(202) 366-2285 (voice)
www.fta.dot.gov/office/civ.htm
Title III covers businesses and nonprofit
service providers that are public accommodations, privately operated
entities offering certain types of courses and examinations, privately
operated transportation, and commercial facilities. Public accommodations
are private entities that own, lease, lease to, or operate facilities such
as restaurants, retail stores, hotels, movie theaters, private schools,
convention centers, doctors' offices, homeless shelters, transportation
depots, zoos, funeral homes, day care centers, and recreation facilities,
including sports stadiums and fitness clubs. Transportation services
provided by private entities, such as taxicabs, are also covered by title
III.
Public accommodations must comply with
basic nondiscrimination requirements that prohibit exclusion, segregation,
and unequal treatment. They also must comply with specific requirements
related to architectural standards for new and altered buildings; reasonable
modifications to policies, practices, and procedures; effective
communication with people with hearing, vision, or speech disabilities; and
other access requirements. Additionally, public accommodations must remove
barriers in existing buildings where this can be done without much
difficulty or expense, given the public accommodation's resources.
Courses and examinations related to
professional, educational, or trade-related applications, licensing,
certifications, or credentialing must be provided in a place and manner
accessible to people with disabilities, or alternative accessible
arrangements must be offered.
Commercial facilities, such as factories
and warehouses, must comply with ADA's architectural standards for new
construction and alterations.
Complaints of title III violations may be
filed with DOJ. In certain situations, cases may be referred to a mediation
program sponsored by DOJ. DOJ is authorized to bring a lawsuit where there
is a pattern or practice of discrimination in violation of title III or
where an act of discrimination raises an issue of general public importance.
Title III may also be enforced through private lawsuits. It is not necessary
to file a complaint with DOJ or any federal agency, or to receive a
right-to-sue letter, before going to court. For more information, contact:
Disability
Rights Section
Civil Rights Division
U.S. Department of Justice
P.O. Box 66738
Washington, DC 20035-6738
(800) 514-0301 (voice)
(800) 514-0383 (text telephone)
www.usdoj.gov/crt/ada/adahom1.htm
Title IV addresses telephone and television
access for people with hearing and speech disabilities. It requires common
carriers (telephone companies) to establish interstate and intrastate
telecommunications relay services (TRS) 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. TRS
enables callers with hearing and speech disabilities who use text telephones
(TTYs) and callers who use voice telephones to communicate with each other
through a third-party communications assistant. The Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) has set minimum standards for TRS. Title IV also requires
closed captioning of federally funded public service announcements. For more
information about TRS, contact the FCC at:
Federal Communications Commission
445 12th Street, SW
Washington, DC 20554
(888) 225-5322 (voice/relay)
www.fcc.gov/cib/dro
Section 255 and section 251(a)(2) of the
Communications Act of 1934, as amended by the Telecommunications Act of
1996, require manufacturers of telecommunications equipment and providers of
telecommunications services to ensure that such equipment and services are
accessible to and usable by persons with disabilities, if this goal is
readily achievable. These amendments ensure that people with disabilities
will have access to a broad range of products and services--such as
telephones, cell phones, pagers, call waiting, and operator services--that,
in the past, were inaccessible to many users with disabilities. For more
information, contact:
Federal
Communications Commission
445 12th Street, SW
Washington, DC 20554
(888) 225-5322 (voice/relay)
www.fcc.gov/cib/dro
The Fair Housing Act, as amended in 1988,
prohibits housing discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex,
disability, familial status, and national origin. Its coverage includes
private housing, housing that receives federal financial assistance, and
state and local government housing. It is unlawful to discriminate in any
aspect of selling or renting housing or to deny a dwelling to a buyer or
renter because of the disability of that individual, an individual
associated with the buyer or renter, or an individual who intends to live in
the residence. Other covered activities include, for example, financing,
zoning practices, new construction design, and advertising.
The Fair Housing Act requires owners of
housing facilities to make reasonable exceptions in their policies and
operations to afford people with disabilities equal housing opportunities.
For example, a landlord with a "no pets" policy may be required to
grant an exception to this rule and allow an individual who is blind to keep
a guide dog in the residence. The Fair Housing Act also requires landlords
to allow tenants with disabilities to make reasonable access-related
modifications to their private living space, as well as to common use
spaces. (The landlord is not required to pay for the changes.) The Act
further requires that new multifamily housing with four or more units be
designed and built to allow access for persons with disabilities. This
includes accessible common use areas, doors that are wide enough for
wheelchairs, kitchens and bathrooms that allow a person using a wheelchair
to maneuver, and other adaptable features within the units.
Complaints of Fair Housing Act violations
may be filed with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. For
more information or to file a complaint, contact:
Office
of Program Compliance and Disability Rights
Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
451 Seventh Street, SW, Room 5242
Washington, DC 20140
(800) 669-9777 (voice)
(800) 927-9275 (text telephone)
www.hud.gov/fhe/fheo.html
For questions about the Fair Housing Act,
call the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity at
(202)
708-2333 (voice)
(202) 401-1247 (text telephone)
For publications, call the Housing and
Urban Development Customer Service Center at
(800)
767-7468 (voice/relay)
Additionally, DOJ can file a lawsuit in
cases involving a pattern or practice of discrimination. The Fair Housing
Act also may be enforced through private lawsuits.
The Air Carrier Access Act prohibits
discrimination in air transportation by domestic and foreign air carriers
against qualified individuals with physical or mental impairments. The act
applies only to air carriers that provide regularly scheduled services for
hire to the public. Requirements address a wide range of issues, including
boarding assistance and certain accessibility features in newly built
aircraft and new or altered airport facilities. People may enforce rights
under the Air Carrier Access Act by filing a complaint with the U.S.
Department of Transportation, or by bringing a lawsuit in federal court. For
more information or to file a complaint, contact:
Aviation
Consumer Protection Division
U.S. Department of Transportation
400 Seventh Street, SW
Room 4107, C-75
Washington, DC 20590
(202) 366-2220 (voice)
(202) 755-7687 (text telephone)
www.dot.gov/airconsumer
The Voting Accessibility for the Elderly
and Handicapped Act of 1984 generally requires polling places across the
United States to be physically accessible to people with disabilities for
federal elections. Where no accessible location is available to serve as a
polling place, a political subdivision must provide an alternate means of
casting a ballot on the day of the election. This law also requires states
to make registration and voting aids available for disabled and elderly
voters, including information by text telephones. For more information,
contact
Voting
Section
Civil Rights Division
U.S. Department of Justice
P.O. Box 66128
Washington, DC
20035-6128
(800) 253-3931 (voice/relay)
www.usdoj.gov/crt/voting
National Voter Registration Act, also known
as the "Motor Voter Act," makes it easier for all Americans to
exercise their fundamental right to vote. One of the basic purposes of the
act is to increase the historically low registration rates of minorities and
persons with disabilities that have resulted from discrimination. The act
requires all offices of state-funded programs that are primarily engaged in
providing services to persons with disabilities to provide all program
applicants with voter registration forms, to assist them in completing the
forms, and to transmit completed forms to the appropriate state official.
For more information, contact
Voting
Section
Civil Rights Division
U.S. Department of Justice
P.O. Box 66128
Washington, DC
20035-6128
(800) 253-3931 (voice/relay)
www.usdoj.gov/crt/voting
The Civil Rights of Institutionalized
Persons Act, (CRIPA) authorizes the U.S. Attorney General to investigate
conditions of confinement at state and local government institutions such as
prisons, jails, pretrial detention centers, juvenile correctional
facilities, publicly operated nursing homes, and institutions for people
with psychiatric or developmental disabilities. Its purpose is to allow the
Attorney General to uncover and correct widespread deficiencies that
seriously jeopardize the health and safety of residents of institutions. The
Attorney General does not have authority under CRIPA to investigate isolated
incidents or to represent individual institutionalized persons.
The Attorney General may initiate civil
lawsuits where there is reasonable cause to believe that conditions are
"egregious or flagrant," that they are subjecting residents to
"grievous harm," and that they are part of a "pattern or
practice" of resistance to residents' full enjoyment of constitutional
or federal rights, including title II of ADA and section 504 of the
Rehabilitation Act. For more information or to bring a matter to DOJ's
attention, contact
Special
Litigation Section
Civil Rights Division
U.S. Department of Justice
P.O. Box 66400
Washington, DC 20035-6400
(202) 514-6255 (voice/relay)
www.usdoj.gov/crt/split/index.html
The Individuals with Disabilities Education
Act (IDEA) (formerly called P.L. 94-142 or the Education for all Handicapped
Children Act of 1975) requires public schools to make available to all
eligible children with disabilities a free, appropriate public education in
the least restrictive environment appropriate to their individual needs.
IDEA requires public school systems to
develop appropriate Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) for each child.
The specific special education and related services outlined in each IEP
reflect the individual needs of each student.
IDEA also mandates that particular
procedures be followed in the development of the IEP. Each student's IEP
must be developed by a team of knowledgeable persons and must be reviewed at
least annually. The team includes the child's teacher; the parents, subject
to certain limited exceptions; the child, if appropriate; an agency
representative who is qualified to provide or supervise the provision of
special education; and other individuals at the parents' or agency's
discretion.
If parents disagree with the proposed IEP,
they can request a due process hearing and a review from the state
educational agency, if applicable in that state. They also can appeal the
state agency's decision to state or federal court. For more information,
contact
Office
of Special Education Programs
U.S. Department of Education
330 C Street, SW, Room 3086
Washington, DC 20202
(202) 205-8824 (voice/relay)
www.ed.gov/offices/OSERS/OSEP/index.html
REHABILITATION ACT
The Rehabilitation Act prohibits
discrimination on the basis of disability in programs conducted by federal
agencies, in programs receiving federal financial assistance, in federal
employment, and in the employment practices of federal contractors. The
standards for determining employment discrimination under the Rehabilitation
Act are the same as those used in title I of ADA.
Section 501
Section 501 requires affirmative action and
nondiscrimination in employment by federal agencies of the executive branch.
To obtain more information or to file a complaint, employees should contact
their agency's Equal Employment Opportunity Office.
Section 503
Section 503 requires affirmative action and
prohibits employment discrimination by federal government contractors and
subcontractors with contracts of more than $10,000. For more information on
section 503, contact
Office of Federal Contract Compliance
Programs U.S. Department of Labor 200 Constitution Avenue, NW Washington, DC
20210 (202) 693-0106 (voice/relay) www.dol.gov/dol/esa/public/ofcp_org.htm
Section 504
Section 504 states that "no qualified
individual with a disability in the United States shall be excluded from,
denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under" any
program or activity that either receives federal financial assistance or is
conducted by any agency of the executive branch or the U.S. Postal Service.
Each federal agency has its own set of
section 504 regulations that apply to its own programs. Agencies that
provide federal financial assistance also have section 504 regulations
covering entities that receive federal aid. Requirements common to these
regulations include reasonable accommodation for employees with
disabilities, program accessibility, effective communication with people who
have hearing or vision disabilities, and accessible new construction and
alterations. Each agency is responsible for enforcing its own regulations.
Section 504 may also be enforced through private lawsuits. It is not
necessary to file a complaint with a federal agency or to receive a
right-to-sue letter before going to court.
For information on how to file section 504
complaints with the appropriate agency, contact
Disability
Rights Section
Civil Rights Division
U.S. Department of Justice
P.O. Box 66738
Washington, DC 20035-6738
(800) 514-0301 (voice)
(800) 514-0383 (text telephone)
www.usdoj.gov/crt/ada/adahom1.html
Section 508 establishes requirements for
electronic and information technology developed, maintained, procured, or
used by the federal government. Section 508 requires federal electronic and
information technology to be accessible to people with disabilities,
including employees and members of the public.
An accessible information technology system
is one that can be operated in a variety of ways and does not rely on a
single sense or ability of the user. For example, a system that provides
output only in visual format may not be accessible to people with visual
impairments, and a system that provides output only in audio format may not
be accessible to people who are deaf or hard of hearing. Some individuals
with disabilities may need accessibility-related software or peripheral
devices to use systems that comply with section 508. For more information on
section 508, contact
GSA
Office of Governmentwide Policy
Center for IT Accommodation (CITA)
1800 F Street, NW
Room 1234, MC:MKC
Washington, DC 20405-0001
(202) 501-4906 (voice)
(202) 501-2010 (text telephone)
www.itpolicy.gsa.gov/cita
U.S.
Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board
1331 F Street, NW, Suite 1000
Washington, DC 20004-1111
(800) 872-2253 (voice)
(800) 993-2822 (text telephone)
www.access-board.gov
The Architectural Barriers Act (ABA)
requires that buildings and facilities that are designed, constructed, or
altered with federal funds, or leased by a federal agency, comply with
federal standards for physical accessibility. ABA requirements are limited
to architectural standards in new and altered buildings and in newly leased
facilities. They do not address the activities conducted in those buildings
and facilities. Facilities of the U.S. Postal Service are covered by ABA.
For more information or to file a complaint, contact
U.S.
Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board
1331 F Street, NW, Suite 1000
Washington, DC 20004-1111
(800) 872-2253 (voice)
(800) 993-2822 (text telephone)
www.access-board.gov
GENERAL SOURCES OF DISABILITY RIGHTS
INFORMATION
ADA
Information Line
(800) 514-0301 (voice)
(800) 514-0383 (text telephone)
www.usdoj.gov/crt/ada/adahom1.htm
Regional
Disability and Business Technical Assistance Centers
(800) 949-4232 (voice/text telephone)
www.adata.org
National
Council on Disability
1331 F Street, NW, Suite 1050
Washington, DC 20004
(202) 272-2004
(202) 272-2074 (text telephone)
(202) 272-2022 (fax)
www.ncd.gov
(Information Adapted from Department of Justice Information)
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