On July 29, the U.S. Access Board's Rail Vehicles Access Advisory Committee (RVAAC) will release its final report on updating the ADA Accessibility Guidelines for Transportation Vehicles. The committee's report will provide recommendations for revising and refreshing provisions in the guidelines for fixed guideway systems, including rapid, light, commuter, intercity, and high speed rail. Recommendations will address boarding and alighting accessibility, on-board circulation, seating, communications, and rooms and spaces, among other topics. The Board will use the committee's report to propose updates to its ADA vehicle guidelines and will make them available for public comment. The Board is currently finalizing updated to sections of the vehicle guidelines covering buses and vans which were previously released for public comment. Committee representatives will brief the Board on the report during a presentation on July 29 from 9:30 to 11:30 (ET) at the Board's conference center.

Alden Estates of Naperville, Inc. will pay $55,000 to settle a disability discrimination lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced. EEOC's suit had alleged that Alden fired its admissions director while she was out on a medical leave of absence, one week before she was able to return to work. Alden Estates of Naperville, Inc. provides transitional care and rehabilitation services to patients in the western suburbs of Chicago.

Waste Connections, Inc. (WCI) of Houston, Texas will pay $45,000 to settle a disability discrimination lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced. In the summer of 2013, WCI offered a pilot's job to John Frame. During a call from WCI offering him the job, Frame mentioned his wife's disability, at which time WCI ended the telephone call, then called back and withdrew its job offer within hours. EEOC alleged that WCI's decision was based entirely on its learning of Frame's wife's disability status, not on his qualifications or experience as a pilot.

Aurora Health Care, Inc., will pay $80,000 to settle a disability discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The EEOC lawsuit charged that in 2009, Aurora withdrew a job offer it had made to Kelly Beckwith for a position as hospice care coordinator upon learning during her pre-employment medical examination that she has multiple sclerosis (MS).

In a conciliation agreement with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), Roto Rooter Services Company will pay $100,000 to resolve a disability discrimination charge filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). An investigation by the EEOC's Minneapolis Area Office revealed that a Plymouth, Minn., Roto Rooter location denied an employee who returned from the Iraq War with service-related disabilities reasonable accommodations to enable him to return to work.

NHC Healthcare/Clinton, LLC, a licensed nursing center that provides a wide array of skilled nursing, therapeutic and rehabilitative services, violated federal law when it failed to accommodate a pregnant employee and subsequently fired her because of her pregnancy and her disability, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit it filed.

On July 15, 2015, the United States sent its findings to the State of Georgia stating that the State's administration of the Georgia Network for Educational and Therapeutic Support (GNETS) program violates Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act by unnecessarily segregating students with disabilities from their peers in school. The State fails to ensure that students with behavior-related disabilities receive services and supports that could enable them to remain in, or return to, the most integrated educational placements appropriate to their needs.

The Department of Justice has published a new 9-page ADA technical assistance document, Frequently Asked Questions about Service Animals and the ADA to further assist covered entities and people with disabilities to understand how the ADA's service animal provisions apply to them. The document answers questions that continue to be asked since the publication of the Department's 2011 document, Revised ADA Requirements: Service Animals.

The Justice Department announced that the Fairfax Nursing Center (FNC) has agreed to pay $97,500.00 to resolve allegations that it violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by failing to provide effective communication services to individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing in the provision of medical services. The investigation, conducted by the U. S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, began with a complaint from the companions (daughter and granddaughter, both of whom are deaf) of a patient at FNC that the skilled nursing facility failed to provide them with appropriate auxiliary aids and services, including a sign language interpreter, during critical interactions with FNC's staff regarding the patient's treatment plan and medical care. The Settlement Agreement required FNC to: (1) adopt policies and procedures that ensure that individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing - patients and companions- receive auxiliary aids and services that insure effective communication; (2) train its staff on the ADA's effective communication requirements; (3) pay $80,000.00 to the complainants and $5,000.00 to the United States to vindicate the public interest; and (4) establish a fund of $12,500.00 to sponsor training on the ADA's requirements for others in the Virginia nursing facility industry.

The Justice Department announced that it has filed Statements of Interest in two private cases pending in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, National Association of the Deaf, et al., v. Harvard University, et al., and National Association of the Deaf, et al., v. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In these cases, plaintiffs allege that Harvard and MIT violated the ADA and Section 504 by denying equal access to free online courses and lectures to individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing. Specifically, plaintiffs allege that Harvard and MIT fail to provide appropriate auxiliary aids, benefits and services, including captioning. The U. S. Department of Education, which enforces Section 504 against post-secondary institutions such as Harvard and MIT, is a signatory to the Statements of Interest.

The Justice Department signed a settlement agreement today with Camp Bravo, a day camp that operates in Towson, Maryland, just outside Baltimore. The settlement resolves allegations that Camp Bravo violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by denying a child admission to the camp because she has epilepsy and requires administration of the emergency medication Diastat if she were to have a prolonged or acute repetitive seizure. Though Diastat is designed to be administered by trained laypersons and could save the child's life, Camp Bravo would not permit non-medical staff to administer the medication and later refused to permit the camp nurse to accompany the child on field trips or bus rides. As a result, the child was not able to attend Camp Bravo for two consecutive summers. Under the agreement, Camp Bravo will admit the child for all future camp sessions for which she is eligible, and will pay $8,000 to the family to compensate them for Camp Bravo's failure to admit the child in the past. The agreement also requires staff training and changes to the camp's policies and procedures.

On June 9, 2015, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a letter finding that Amtrak, the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, is in violation of Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by failing to make stations for which it is responsible physically accessible to persons with mobility disabilities by the deadline in the ADA of July 26, 2010. That is, currently only 18 out of nearly 400 Amtrak stations are accessible.

Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act requires covered businesses and organizations to insure that individuals with disabilities have the same level of access to information that individuals without disabilities have. If your hospital communicates with companions of family members without disabilities then you must insure that you communicate effectively with companions, family members with disabilities, if you regularly communicate with companions of patients. The obligation to communicate effectively applies to patients, family members and visitors with disabilities. The Department of Justice regulations implementing title III of the Americans with Disabilities (ADA) makes clear the obligation to communicate effectively with the companions of patients, customers, participants etc.

This may require the provision of auxiliary aids or services. For communicating with some one that is deaf or hard of hearing that could include 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), videotext displays, or other effective methods of making aurally delivered materials available to individuals that are deaf or hard of hearing.

This does not mean that every time you need to communicate with some one that is deaf or hard of hearing that an interpreter is needed. However, in situations where the information being provided orally is complex or the information is being provided over a long period of time it is likely an interpreter would be needed. The ADA does not require a covered business or organization to provide any auxiliary aid or services that would result in an undue burden or fundamentally alter the nature of the goods or services being offered. If a particular auxiliary aid or service poses an undue burden then you would need to insure effective communication by providing something that does not pose an undue burden.

For additional information please contact the Great Lakes ADA Center at (800) 949-4232 (V/TTY) or by completing the online form: http://adagreatlakes.com/WebForms/ContactUs/>

For more information please call 800-949-4232 (Voice/TTY) or Online via Contact Us form.