Megaconference Special #6 of 6: ADA Sections II and III

by Dora Raymaker · 2009-06-29 16:00:00 UTC
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close up of the side of the u.s. department of justice building, gray bricks and the letters spelling out 'department of justice'The second session I went to on "ADA Day" was on sections II (publicly funded items) and III (privately funded items). This means accessibility for things like: public transportation and private taxi companies, court houses and retail outlets, and public hospitals and private clinics.

Three things I learned that I did not know before were:

1. You do not need to hire a lawyer to file an ADA complaint. You can complain directly to the Department of Justice. For education-related complaints, you can go directly to the Department of Education.

2. One of the things that can be directly requested in a complaint is that staff wherever the complaint has occurred be trained on ADA / disability / access / sensitivity, and even that they receive ongoing training on such.

3. A requirement to comply with the ADA is that all government services and institutions provide Effective Communication, including any "auxiliary aids and services" (this could include picture-based communication and communication devices). This is really quite huge for those of us who struggle with conventional communication, take a look at what the ADA toolkit says about Effective Communication.

Lots of good stuff out there that isn't always well-known! This is a powerful tool we have; need to use it more often.

Dora Raymaker
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