A Meaningful Opportunity to Participate

A Handbook for Georgia Court Officials on Courtroom Accessibility
for Individuals with Disabilities

PART III:
Establishing a Disability/Accommodation Protocol

To ensure a truly equal opportunity for individuals with disabilities to participate in court proceedings, it is necessary to acknowledge and address particular barriers they often face. Consider someone who is blind and wants to visit a court system's website for information concerning a particular case. If the website is not designed to properly interface with that individual's own assistive technology, there is no meaningful opportunity to utilize that court service. Likewise, an individual who is deaf may need a sign language interpreter or alternative method to effectively communicate during a particular proceeding. Without the appropriate accommodation, the opportunity to fully and equally participate in any genuine way will have been denied.

Accordingly, it is sometimes necessary to take additional steps, such as developing an accessible court website or provide a sign language interpreter for that proceeding, to ensure a truly meaningful equal opportunity to participate. Making a web site available, like structurally altering a building or installing an assistive listening system to improve accessibility, creates accessibility for significant numbers of people with varying disabilities. Moreover, once accomplished, these types of actions generally only require periodic maintenance of their accessible features.

Conversely, providing a sign language interpreter, like other individualized accommodation requests, involves a case-by-case assessment to determine the appropriate course of action. Under the ADA, only qualified individuals with ADA disabilities are eligible for individualized accommodations when necessary to ensure an equal opportunity to participate. If a particular accommodation is indeed necessary, the court cannot pass any associated cost on to the individual.

Court systems should develop and implement a protocol for addressing individualized requests. A protocol enables the court to:

• utilize resource information for addressing common accommodation requests;

• demonstrate to individuals with disabilities that their requests are being considered; and

• methodically evaluate accommodation requests, without creating unnecessary administrative demands on busy court personnel that often result from unexpected requests.

Developing the Accommodation Protocol

A protocol should include the following steps:

Step 1: Identify and train a contact person for disability-related matters.

Designating a knowledgeable contact person is perhaps the most important step towards achieving compliance with the law. Counties and municipalities that employ 50 or more persons are required to designate a "responsible person" (often referred to as the "ADA coordinator") to coordinate compliance efforts and investigate any complaints. Courts in smaller cities and counties may consider designating the city or county ADA coordinator to handle issues involving courts while larger court systems should consider appointing their own contact person. The court's contact person for disability issues performs four important roles:

• Public Point of Contact: Provides a single point of contact for people with disabilities who need accommodations to access court services. Identifying the contact person in public notices and publications allows individuals with disabilities to contact one person with the knowledge and responsibility to handle accommodation requests.

• Information Dissemination: Serves as a central resource on disability issues for judges, administrators, bailiffs, clerks, other courtroom personnel and citizens with disabilities. The contact person should be familiar with the court's responsibilities under the law and should have access to the resources needed to respond to inquiries and accommodation requests.

• Effective Communication: Knows how to access auxiliary aids and services to promote effective communication.

• Support: Provides training and technical assistance for court employees in responding to requests for accommodation; instructs employees on disability awareness issues.

Step 2: Involve people with disabilities and disability-related organizations in proactively identifying potential and existing access barriers.

Effective outreach will help educate the disability community on court programs, services and activities as well as provide feedback to court personnel on ways to improve their customer service.

Step 3: Establish a procedure for evaluating accommodation requests in a timely manner.

A well-drafted accommodation procedure should:

• evaluate cases and circumstances on an individualized, case-by-case basis as expeditiously as possible;

• be flexible and eliminate unnecessary levels of review where possible. Court employees may receive impromptu requests, such as a request to escort a person who is blind to the appropriate courtroom, and the employees should be empowered to handle these requests;

• maintain the confidentiality of medical information;

• track all accommodation requests including those requests that cannot be fulfilled and the process used to reach each of those decisions; and

• maintain a resource and technical support database for disability-related issues that arise.

Appendix B contains a model form courts may utilize to process accommodation requests.

Step 4: Educate all courtroom personnel on the court's accessibility features and accommodation protocol.

Step 5: Notify the public regarding the court's accommodation process.

The court is required to provide information about its ADA-related responsibilities to all interested persons. Courts can disseminate information about their disability accommodation processes, including the name of the contact person, in several ways. For example, a court could provide information about accommodation requests on its website, in its court rules, in juror summons and in information pamphlets. Courts should also provide notice to individuals with disabilities about the ADA's prohibition against discrimination and their rights under the law.

Step 6: Implement a Grievance Procedure

Courts must adopt and publish a grievance procedure for the prompt and equitable resolution of ADA-related complaints. The grievance procedure may be included in existing grievance procedures adopted by the court for any other purpose. The ADA provides a great deal of latitude in this area, meaning that courts may choose to adopt alternative dispute resolution processes, such as third-party mediation, in their grievance procedures. Appendix C contains a sample grievance procedure.

© Georgia Commission on Access and Fairness in the Courts, December 2004

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