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The Americans with Disabilities Act requires businesses, institutions, and organizations to accommodate people with disabilities with communications access.
Conferences
It is standard when working with people with disabilities to offer a number of different formats for materials that are distributed: large print, Braille, and electronic text are mopst common. Emailing materials in advance is helpful to Blind participants who rely on PDA’s or screen readers to process written documents.
Generally, the registration form has a column to indicate the communication access special accommodations. Often this information is requested in the same section of the registrations as special diets for conferences offering food.
Large Print: legally defined as 14.2 font; most commonly printed in 16pt. Other standard fonts are 18 point to 24 point. In fact, we often provide materials in 22 pt bold.
Braille: Call the Massachusetts Association for the Blind, 617 972-9109
Electronic: an acceptable alternative for some visually impaired people is emailing documents prior to the session. Blind people can then load them into their adaptive reading devices ahead of time. An excellent alternative is to post the documents to a website ahead of time and simply alert those interested that they are available for download.
PDF: Some people who are blind can now access PDF documents using a screen reader, provided that the documents do not contain a scanned image rather than actual text. However, HTML, Word, and text are still preferable
Disks for handouts: May be made available on CD or floppy disks.
Telephone options for Deaf people: TTY (Text Telephone) or TDD (Telecommunications Device for the Deaf) allow you to call a deaf person with a similar device. allow you to call a deaf person with a similar device. Both parties communicate over the phone lines using a keyboard and printer.
Mass Relay (711): Mass Relay calls may be placed by dialing 711. An intercept operator transmits your voice message to the deaf person who is using a TTY/TD device.
ASL (American sign Language): for people who are deaf. Call the Massachusetts Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (MCDHH), 617 740-1600 (voice) or 617-740-1700 (TTY) to reserve. (A minimum of two weeks is usually necessary to schedule and there are no guarantees of getting them.)
CART (Computer Aided Real time): for people who are hard of hearing. Call MCDHH
(a minimum of two weeks is usually necessary to schedule and there are no guarantees of getting them.)
“I think that the most important thing is that the person with a disability has the right to request what they need and both parties should work together to make sure that the meeting is accessible to those who need such accommodations.” Rick Malley, DPC Board member, November 2004.
Federal ADA Information http://www.ada.gov/srchfoia.htm or
http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/ada/adahom1.htm
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