The Great Lakes ADA and Accessible IT Center is offering $500.00 scholarships to support participation of individuals in our six state region to attend the 2005 National ADA Symposium May 17-19 in Kansas City, Missouri at the Overland Park Convention Center. The Center will pay the $295.00 registration fee and provide an additional $205.00 toward the cost of airfare, hotel, and food. The scholarships will be awarded based on need and issued on a first come first served basis. Government entities are not eligible for the scholarships. The Center will accept applications through April 1, 2005, but cannot guarantee all applicants will be awarded a scholarship. The Center will notify recipients no later than April 15, 2005. Applications for the scholarships can be completed online. This month's Great Lakes ADA Center – In Depth section features additional information regarding the training sessions offered at the ADA National Symposium. For additional information regarding the scholarship contact the Great Lakes ADA Center at (800) 949-4232 (V/TTY) or via our online contact form.

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) reached four new settlement agreements under Project Civic Access: Missoula County, MT; Sedona, AZ; Carpinteria, CA; and Suffolk, VA.  Project Civic Access works with counties, cities, towns, and villages to remove barriers that will foster compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). By eliminating physical and communication barriers Project Civic Access allows persons with disabilities to participate in the activities and services offered by their respective communities. The DOJ has conducted reviews in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia and posted the agreements on the Project Civic Access website.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced the inception of the Freedom to Compete Award, as part of the EEOC's national outreach campaign. The purpose of this initiative is to advance the EEOC's mission to remove barriers to employment that will provide free and unfettered access to employment opportunities for all individuals. The central theme of the initiative is that every individual deserves the opportunity to compete and advance as far as their ability allows.  Nomination packages are available online and must be received no later than March 18, 2005. Nomination packages may be sent by e-mail to Freedom.Award@eeoc.gov, or by mail to Jay Friedman, EEOC, Office of Research, Information and Planning, 1801 L Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20507.

U.S. Department of Labor Secretary, Elaine Chao, is seeking nominations for the New Freedom Initiative Award from non-profits, small businesses, corporations and individuals that have demonstrated innovative efforts in employing persons with disabilities. The award recognizes programs that have benefited persons with disabilities through the use of assistive technology as well as entities and individuals who have developed effective strategies that enable persons with disabilities to enter the workforce. Additional information about the award is available from the Office of Disability Employment Policy, Education and Outreach Section (202) 693-7880. The mailing deadline is May 22, 2005 and the deadline for receipt of the nomination is May 27, 2005.

This three part series will focus on the issues surrounding reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act and focus on practices currently being utilized by employers to address this critical issue in the employment process. The sessions will highlight best practices, share strategies for addressing reasonable accommodation requests as well as discuss issues related to documentation, assessment and reassessment, and the critical nature of the interactive process.

You can receive the following continuing education units for your participation:

• Certified Rehabilitation Counselor (CRC)
• Professional in Human Resources (PHR)
• Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) – Recertification

Plan to participate in all three sessions!

March 15, 2005: A Perspective on Reasonable Accommodation
Speaker: Shelia S. Newman, Vice President, Cherry Engineering Support Services, Inc
Jennifer Eckel, Project Director, ADA Program Assistance Coordinator, Cherry Engineering Support Services, Inc

April 19, 2005: Reasonable Accommodation: Best Practices for an Interactive Process
Speaker: Bart Bartlett, County of Orange, Santa Ana, California
Beth Loy, Ph.D., Human Factors Consultant with the Job Accommodation Network
Kendra Duckworth, Human Factors Consultant for the Job Accommodation Network

May 17, 2005: What Are The Courts Saying About Reasonable Accommodation?
David Fram, National Employment Law Institute

The Accessible Web Publishing Wizard for Microsoft Office is a tool that allows users to create highly accessible and standards compliant versions of Microsoft Office documents (PowerPoint, Word, Excel) for the web without having to have the technical expertise and knowledge of accessibility standards.

The tool, developed at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, gives users an alternative to the built-in web publishing features in Microsoft Office. The tool acts as a plug-in to Microsoft Office, and displays as an option under the file menu in Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. One major difference between the Accessible Web Publishing Wizard and the built-in publisher already in the Office suite is the automated and guided wizard, which allows users to provide logical text equivalents for charts and other graphical objects. The wizard produces web pages that are logically tied together, and can be accessed using alternative browsers and assistive technology.

One of the advantages of using the tool is that it can be used with minimal training. The tool was developed so that anyone who wants to publish a Microsoft Office document can produce a web-based version that can be used for universal audiences, and does so with mainstreaming universally-designed information resources in mind.

The tool produces web pages that are compliant with Section 508 standards, W3C, and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) levels A and Double A standards for conformance. It also makes use of Cascading Style sheets for cross-platform consistency. Documents created with the Accessible Web Publishing Wizard can even be used with course management systems, such as Blackboard, WebCT, and Desire2Learn.

Not only does the tool benefit people with disabilities, it offers a clean, seamless way to publish any Word, PowerPoint, or Excel document to the web in a format that will be consistent across web browsers. This is becoming increasingly important, as many schools and institutions are using alternatives to Microsoft's Internet Explorer, such as Opera and Mozilla Firefox.

It is anticipated that the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) will publish revisions to the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) in March 2005.  This follows their release in February 24, 2004 for comments on FMLA.  FMLA is a federal law that requires covered employers to grant eligible employees up to 12 weeks of leave to address medical problems affecting the employees or certain family members. The DOL has proposed rule changes because of the impact of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Ragsdale vs Wolverine Worldwide Inc.  The DOL has not stated what revisions will be proposed.

The U.S. 7^th Circuit Court in Rodney Kupstas vs. the City of Greenwood, IN, affirmed a lower court ruling granting summary judgment to the City.  The lower court ruled that the City of Greenwood did not violate the provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act when it fired Rodney Kupstas, who was employed as a truck driver/laborer.  After hurting his back Kupstas returned to work with restrictions that precluded him from lifting over 40 lbs, standing for extended periods of time, raking for a period of more than 2 hours continuously, and shoveling and raking no more than 4 hours in one day.  Kupstas's supervisor and the Human Resource Director concluded that the raking restriction disqualified him for the position of truck/driver laborer.  The supervisor and Human Resource Director informed him that his job was in jeopardy.  The Human Resource Director tried but failed to find Kupstas another job with the City that he was qualified to perform and he was subsequently fired.  Kupstas filed suit claiming his termination violated the ADA.  The lower court granted summary judgment stating Kupstas failed to show he could perform the essential functions of the job.  The Appeals Court affirmed the granting of summary judgment but for a different reason.  Kupstas did not prove he had standing under the ADA as a qualified individual with a disability.

On February 24, 2005, ADA-Indiana and the Indiana State Personnel Department hosted an ADA training event for human resource representatives and managers from state and local government. The training, "Rights and Responsibilities under the Americans with Disabilities Act: Reasonable Accommodation Focus" was conducted by Peter Berg, Technical Assistance Coordinator for the Great Lakes ADA & Accessible IT Center.  Mr. Berg's presentation included a PowerPoint presentation followed by a Q&A session in which he addressed a variety of ADA and employment related issues.

Question:  I am the office manager for a physician, who is a sole practitioner in a rural area of our state. I received a call from a deaf individual who was using phone relay services to make an appointment. The Doctor has seen this patient in the past and the woman's mother has interpreted for the visits. Now the patient is stating that we are responsible for getting an interpreter and paying for the interpreter.

The cost of the interpreter is more then the Doctor charges the patient's insurance for the visits. The Doctor would be losing money if she were required to pay for an interpreter. Are we responsible for providing and paying the interpreter? Why can't we have the mother continue to interpret for the visit?

Answer:  The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires covered entities to provide effective communication with individuals who are deaf and hard of hearing. A place of public accommodation is required to take steps that may be necessary to ensure that no individual with a disability is excluded, denied services, segregated or otherwise treated differently than other individuals because of the absence of auxiliary aids and services.

The term auxiliary aids and services includes qualified interpreters, note takers, computer-aided transcription services, written materials, telephone handset amplifiers, assistive listening devices, assistive listening systems, telephones compatible with hearing aids, closed caption decoders, open and closed captioning, telecommunications devices for deaf persons (TDD's), video text displays, or other effective methods of making aurally delivered materials available.

The ADA does not require a place of public accommodation to provide a qualified sign language interpreter in order to communicate with individuals with hearing impairments. The ADA requires a place of public accommodation to provide an effective means of communication. In determining when a qualified sign language interpreter is necessary an entity should consider the duration and complexity of the information that is to be delivered. In many instances involving the delivery of complex information in medical settings writing notes would not be an effective means of communicating and would warrant the provision of a qualified sign language interpreter. Family members or friends may be unable to be impartial or confidential while interpreting in a medical setting and for this reason the ADA deems it inappropriate to require a family member or friend to serve as the interpreter.

A covered entity must provide an appropriate auxiliary aid or service unless the public accommodation can demonstrate that taking those steps would fundamentally alter the nature of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations being offered or would result in an undue burden, i.e., significant difficulty or expense. If a public accommodation refuses to provide an auxiliary aid because it would result in an undue burden and/or alter the nature of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations offered by the public accommodation an alternative auxiliary aid or service must be provided, if one exists, that would not fundamentally alter the nature of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations offered by the public accommodation.

A public accommodation may not impose a surcharge on a particular individual with a disability or any group of individuals with disabilities to cover the costs of providing an auxiliary aid. The cost of providing an auxiliary aid should be regarded as an inherent part of doing business. Covered entities may be eligible for tax credits when furnishing necessary auxiliary aids and services needed to communicate with individuals with disabilities. If you wish to receive additional information regarding the rights and responsibilities of individuals and covered entities and tax credits available under the ADA you may contact the Great Lakes Center by calling (800) 949-4232 (V/TTY) or via our online contact form.

The Great Lakes ADA Center disseminates publications related to all aspects of the ADA to inform and raise awareness of disability issues and to foster voluntary compliance with the ADA.  The Great Lakes ADA Center disseminates materials including posters, regulations and technical bulletins on various ADA topics.