ADA Enforcement

Disability advocates are dismayed that sixteen years after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act many of the rights people expected to be protected are still being ignored. Streets and sidewalks have curb cuts but construction sites ignored temporary accesibilty avenues. Developers still object to universal design and usually opt to install features to meet minimum requirements. Employers ignore the talents of people with disabilities because of the myths of the costs of accommodations.

The DPC has begun to look at creative ways to enforce the ADA and Massachusetts' Architectural Access Board regulations.

Web Accessibility

Is your web site accessible? DPC Web Tech Services are available to help you bring your web site into compliance.

Success

Communication Access at the State House, March 13, 2007

The Disability Policy Consortium is pleased to announce that the Legislature’s web site now has a form to allow a person to request communication access accommodations for Legislative events. The request will go directly to the Massachusetts Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing scheduling personnel.

The General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, in cooperation with the Massachusetts Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, has created this request form to aid the Deaf, Late Deafened and Hard of Hearing citizens of the Commonwealth to request communications access to Senate and House hearings as well as sessions held by the General Court. Requests entered through this site will be forwarded to the referral department of MCDHH for processing. Please complete all required fields as this will help us to respond to your request as quickly as possible while keeping call backs to a minimum.

The form may be found in two places on www.mass.gov\legis under the Heading for Hearings and Miscellaneous. The direct link is the following:

This form can be used to request interpreters or CART services for hearings on bills or to attend a House of Representatives or Senate session. Auxiliary Aids for communication access for meetings with individual legislators will also be available. Requests for communication access for meetings with individual legislators should be made by that legislator’s staff after the appointment has been made.

The Disability Policy Consortium has posted a partial list of legislation of interest to the deaf and hard of hearing communities. We will update the Tracking Report as soon as the complete text of all bills for the current session is made available by the House and Senate Clerk’s offices.

The listing is on the DPC’s web site, here.

Recent Actions

The DPC Takes Legal

Action at the State House

The Disability Policy Consortium, a nonprofit disability rights organization, filed a lawsuit against President of the Senate Robert E. Travaglini, and Speaker of the House of Representatives Salvatore F. DiMasi, for denying people with disabilities access to State House proceedings.

The Disability Policy Consortium contends that communications access and physical access, covered by the Massachusetts Constitution and the Americans with Disabilities Act, were denied by Travaglini and DiMasi. As a result, individuals named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit were not provided equal access to participate in government activities.

John Winske, President of the DPC, said the lawsuit speaks for itself. “We often hear Legislators proclaiming that the ‘State House is the People’s Building’.

· When people who are Deaf have no way of requesting communication access such as American Sign Language Interpreters, the State House is not the People’s Building.

· When staff deny hard of hearing citizens CART services, the State House is not the People’s Building.

· When doors are unable to be opened because they are locked or power-assist doesn’t work, the State House is not the People’s Building.

· When public hearings are scheduled without scheduling communication access, the State House is not the People’s Building.

Added Winske “We are sad that it has come to that we had to take legal action. We have tried to settle this matter amicably for more than 15 months. But the issue we are fighting for is as old as our nation. More than two centuries ago our nation’s founders decreed that taxation without representation was unacceptable. For people with disabilities this goal remains elusive in the Commonwealth.”