This lesson covers the basis of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and how the Act impacts community based programs and services for children with disabilities. The lesson also provides information about the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and correlate principles of the IDEA to community based programs and services for children.
The learner will examine the Americans with Disabilities Act and articulate the primary components of the ADA in the context of community based programs for children. The learner will examine the IDEA and articulate the principles behind the Act, demonstrating the capacity to correlate these principles to best practice in community based programs and services.
The learner will analyze a community based program and evaluate the program in the context of the ADA and the principles behind the IDEA.
On July 36, President George Bush signed into law the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This Act represents the world's first comprehensive declaration of equality for people with disabilities.
In his comments on the South Lawn of the White House to nearly 2,000 supporters of the disability rights legislation, the President said, "This Act is powerful in its simplicity. It will ensure that people with disabilities are given the basic guarantees for which they have worked so long and so hard--independence, freedom of choice, control of their lives, the opportunity to blend fully and equally into the rich mosaic of the American mainstream."
The Act's definition of people with disabilities is based on the definition in Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in a range of areas, such as employment, social services and education, by entities that receive federal funds. Like Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, ADA defines a person with a disability as someone with a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits that person in some major life activity, someone with a record of such a physical or mental impairment or someone who is regarded as having such an impairment.
In using the Section 504 definition, ADA uses a functional definition of disability rather than a list of every possible medical disability. Such lists have never been used in disability legislation, due to both the difficulty of ensuring the comprehensiveness of such a list and the fact that some medical conditions may not yet be discovered or prevalent at the time legislation is passed.
Title I of the Act covers Employers' responsibilities in hiring and employment of persons with disabilities. This lesson does not cover information related to employment practices.
ADA also prohibits privately operated public accommodations from discriminating against people with disabilities, just as the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 prohibits discrimination by the Federal Government and by entities receiving federal funds. The Act lists 12 categories of establishments that are considered public accommodations under the Act. The categories cover such establishments as hotels, restaurants, theaters, auditoriums, convention centers, doctors' offices, pharmacies, retail stores, public transportation terminals, museums, libraries, parks, zoos, and recreation centers.
The Act provides that no individual shall be discriminated against on the basis of disability in the full nad equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, and accommodations of any place of public accommodation. In addition to prohibiting public accommodations from excluding or refusing to serve an individual on the basis of his or her disability, the Act specifies that public accommodations cannot provide an unequal benefit to a person with a disability. In addition, public accommodations cannot provide a separate benefit to a disabled individual, unless the facility can show that a separate benefit is necessary in order to provide an opportunity to the disabled person that is as effective as that provided to others.
The Act contains a number of provisions to improve the physical accessibility of privately operated public accommodations.
Under the Act, public accommodations and commercial facilities must be "readily accessible to and usable by" people with disabilities, unless the facility can show that it is structurally impracticable to meet this requirement. This requirement goes into effect for buildings designed for first occupancy 30 months after enactment.
The "readily accessible to and usable by" standard is the same standard that was used in the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as well as subsequent legislation. As interpreted by regulations and the courts, this standard does not require total accessibility in every part of every area of a facility. Rather, the standard has been held to mean such features as accessible routes to and throughout a facility, accessible entrances, usable bathrooms, and usable water fountains.
In addition to the Act's provisions requiring public accommodations to provide physical access to people with disabilities, the Act provides that public accommodations should also employ additional means for ensuring that disabled people can be provided equal enjoyment of a facility's services and benefits.
The Act requires that public accommodations provide "auxiliary aids and services" to enable people with disabilities to use and enjoy the goods and services available at a facility--unless the facility can demonstrate that taking such steps would represent "an undue burden" or would "fundamentally alter" the nature of the service or goods it provides.
Auxiliary aids and services refer to such things as large print materials, tape recordings, captioning, and other similar services and devices.
The public accommodations section of the Act provides that the same enforcement procedures and remedies as are used under Title II of the Civil Rights Act are to be used by individuals with disabilities who are subject to discrimination by public accommodations.
Title II remedies are restricted to injunctive relief--such as an injunction to require a public accommodation to undertake a "readily achievable" barrier removal.
In addition to private lawsuits brought by disabled individuals, the public accommodations section of the Act also authorizes the Justice Department to bring actions against a "pattern or practice" of discrimination.
The ADA includes a number specifications related to accessibility of public transportation services and telecommunications. These specifications are not covered in this lesson.
Title III of the ADA is the section of the law that covers most community based programs, such as child-care centers. The exception is entities that are run by religious entities such as churches, mosques, or synagogues. Activities controlled by religious organizations are not covered by Title III of the ADA. The ADA requires that community service providers not discriminate against persons with disabilities on the basis of disability, that is, that they provide children and parents with disabilities with an equal opportunity to participate in programs and services. Specifically:
Organizations cannot exclude children with disabilities from their programs unless their presence would pose a direct threat to the health or safety of others or require a fundamental alteration of the program.
Centers have to make reasonable modifications to their policies and practices to integrate children, parents, and guardians with disabilities into their programs unless doing so would constitute a fundamental alteration.
Organizations must provide appropriate auxiliary aids and services needed for effective communication with children or adults with disabilities, when doing so would not constitute an undue burden.
Organizations must generally make their facilities accessible to persons with disabilities. Existing facilities are subject to the readily achievable standard for barrier removal, while newly constructed facilities and any altered portions of existing facilities must be fully accessible.
Child care centers cannot just assume that a child's disabilities are too severe for the child to be integrated successfully into the center's child care program. The center must make an individualized assessment about whether it can meet the particular needs of the child without fundamentally altering its program. In making this assessment, the caregiver must not react to unfounded preconceptions or stereotypes about what children with disabilities can or cannot do, or how much assistance they may require. Instead, the caregiver should talk to the parents or guardians and any other professionals (such as educators or health care professionals) who work with the child in other contexts. Providers are often surprised at how simple it is to include children with disabilities in their mainstream programs.
Organizations that are accepting new children are not required to accept children who would pose a direct threat or whose presence or necessary care would fundamentally alter the nature of the program. Title III does not require providers to take children with disabilities out of turn or ahead of other children.
If a child who needs one-to-one attention due to a disability can be integrated without fundamentally altering a program, the child cannot be excluded solely because the child needs one-to- one care. For instance, if a child with a significant disability applies for admission and needs one-to-one care, the child cannot be excluded from the program solely because of the need for one-to-one care. However, the program is not required to provide the one-to-one care. The one-to-one care may be provided by parents or other caregivers. Any modifications necessary to integrate such a child and the designated caregiver must be made if the modifications are reasonable and would not fundamentally alter the program. As in other cases, an individualized assessment is required. But the ADA generally does not require organizations to hire additional staff or provide constant one-to-one supervision of a particular child with a disability.
Programs are not required to admit children who pose a direct threat -- a substantial risk of serious harm to the health and safety of others. The determination that a child poses a direct threat may not be based on generalizations or stereotypes about the effects of a particular disability; it must be based on an individualized assessment that considers the particular activity and the actual abilities and disabilities of the individual.
Certain programs may be required to provide effective communication to the customers they serve, including parents and guardians with disabilities, unless doing so poses an undue burden. Therefore, organizations may be required to provide sign language interpretation or other auxiliary aids and services under certain circumstances. Service animals must be accommodated by the organizations. Children with disabilities must be placed in age appropriate settings; generally it is considered inappropriate to place a child with a disability with much younger children. While organizations are required to make reasonable accommodations, in certain circumstances they may charge extra for services that are not specifically required by the ADA, for instance, if trained medical personnel were necessary to provide certain services.
In some circumstances, it may be necessary to give medication to a child with a disability in order to make a program accessible to that child. While some state laws may differ, generally speaking, as long as reasonable care is used in following the doctors' and parents' or guardians written instructions about administering medication, centers should not be held liable for any resulting problems. Providers, parents, and guardians are urged to consult professionals in their state whenever liability questions arise.
Centers that provide personal services such as diapering or toileting assistance for young children must reasonably modify their policies and provide diapering services for older children who need it due to a disability. Generally speaking, centers that diaper infants should diaper older children with disabilities when they would not have to leave other children unattended to do so.
Centers must also provide diapering services to young children with disabilities who may need it more often than others their age.
Some children will need assistance in transferring to and from the toilet because of mobility or coordination problems. Centers should not consider this type of assistance to be a "personal service."
To assist businesses in complying with the ADA, Section 44 of the IRS Code allows a tax credit for small businesses and Section 190 of the IRS Code allows a tax deduction for all businesses.
The tax credit is available to businesses that have total revenues of $1,000,000 or less in the previous tax year or 30 or fewer full-time employees. This credit can cover 50% of the eligible access expenditures in a year up to $10,250 (maximum credit of $5,000). The tax credit can be used to offset the cost of complying with the ADA, including, but not limited to, undertaking barrier removal and alterations to improve accessibility; provide sign language interpreters; and for purchasing certain adaptive equipment.
The tax deduction is available to all businesses with a maximum deduction of $15,000 per year. The tax deduction can be claimed for expenses incurred in barrier removal and alterations.
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is a United States federal law that governs how states and public agencies provide early intervention, special education, and related services to children with disabilities. The IDEA and its predecessor statute, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, arose from federal case law holding the deprivation of free public education to disabled children constitutes a deprivation of due process.
While IDEA is specific to education, there are some basic philosophies behind the IDEA that constitute best practice in all programs involving children with disabilities:
"Least restrictive environment" means that a child who has a disability should have the opportunity to be integrated with nondisabled peers, to the greatest extent possible. They should have access to the general education curriculum, extracurricular activities, or any other program that nondisabled peers would be able to access. The child should be provided with supplementary aids and services necessary to achieve educational goals if placed in a setting with nondisabled peers. Generally, the less opportunity a child has to interact with non-disabled peers, the more that the setting is considered to be restricted.
Conduct your own research and analysis: What are the changes we have seen in our society since the Americans with Disabilities Act was enacted? In what ways have we not achieved the promise of the ADA? Evaluate your own program in the context of the ADA and the principles behind the establishment of the IDEA.
Barriers to Home and Community Living: Part 1
Isolation of persons with disabilites in nursing homes and the effects
of housing discrimination on the individual and the community.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spuIR6UwOkI
Barriers to Home and Community Living: Part 2
Institutional Bias:? legal and bureaucratic barriers that prohibit
persons with disabilities from receiving the living supports they need
in their homes and communities.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rFGZYCdtK8
Barriers to Home and Community Living: Part 3
Making opportunities available for affordable, accessible housing and universal design.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blqf9i_bTKo
Rejoicing Spirits
Faith-based, Christian inclusive ministry
http://www.tangle.com/view_video.php?viewkey=b16d3fb3afebeef96154
NBC news story about an inclusive playground
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWLN0TvDUHo
Three special education teachers discuss benefits of inclusion
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OH4B4aF3KbA&feature=related
US Government ADA Home Page
http://www.ada.gov
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americans_with_Disabilities_Act_of_1990
US Dept. of Education IDEA
http://idea.ed.gov
Wrightslaw IDEA
http://www.wrightslaw.com/idea/index.htm