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REPORT--Northampton ADA Policy- Melissa Marshall Americans with Disabilities Act Compliance in the City of Northampton, Massachusetts: An Analysis of Policy Based on Self-Evaluation Documents and Interviews with Key Staff Melissa Marshall Disability Policy Consulting June, 2017 City of Northampton ADA Compliance Process This product is the result of in-person interviews with The Police Chief, Deputy Fire Chief, Director of Public Health, Director of Human Resources, phone interview with Building Inspector, Director of Department of Public Works and Librarian from the Forbes Library, attendance at a Disability Commission meeting (6/20), conversations with members of the Disability Commission as well as review of Self Evaluation/Transition Plan documents issued in 1995 and 2010. The interviews and conversations were about the City’s informal and written ADA compliance policies. A total of 34.8 hours over a period of two weeks were spent on the project. Aside from their use as emergency shelters, it does not cover schools. These conversations have opened a dialogue about the City’s ADA compliance. Based on these conversations some initial, broad recommendations can be made. More time and process would be needed for detailed recommendations. Findings The Self-Evaluation and Transition Plan documents need to be updated and expanded. Specifically, they need to be updated to reflect the expanded role of technology even since 2010 and expanded to address areas that were not examined in earlier documents. City-wide Compliance Issues and Strengths Compliance Issues The ADA Coordinator’s role is not understood and her identity is not known. Few of the Department heads interviewed knew who the City’s ADA Coordinator is and they were unfamiliar with the ADA Coordinator’s role under Title II of the ADA. This was true even though department heads appear to be doing a good job with compliance efforts. While there is excellent collaboration among police, fire, public health and other departments. there is no collaboration with the ADA Coordinator. There was not an understanding of administrative action steps required under the ADA. There was usually not an understanding of how to provide equally effective communication for people with hearing, speech and visual disabilities as required under Title II. The ADA Coordinator position, which is combined with the Senior Center Director position is untenable. While it is legally permissible to combine the ADA Coordinator with another position, in this circumstance it is unworkable. The ADA Coordinator position should be either a free-standing part time position or a part time position combined with another part-time position. A fulltime director cannot also function as the ADA Coordinator. The position needs to be filled by someone who has ample time to address the volume of ADA issues, extensive training in ADA compliance and the requisite authority that it takes to lead the City in this federal mandate. ADA compliance policies are absent or insufficient, potentially creating legal exposure.An absence of policy can leave staff unsure what to do in a situation where action may or may not be warranted to comply with the ADA. It also impairs the City’s credibility even when it is attempting to comply. Adequate policy is a way for the City to communicate its intention to comply with the ADA to members of the public and employees. It also creates a road map for employees to comply with the ADA. With the exception of the police department, there was a lack of ADA compliance policies. In many instances, departments are complying with ADA obligations but do not have policy to support them. There is no mechanism and no requirement for thedocumentation ADA compliance in many cases Administrative Action Steps that the City is required to take under the ADA are absent or inadequate and not well disseminated.Under Title II of the ADA, the City is required to carry out five action steps. These are appoint a responsible employee (ADA Coordinator); post notice of its intent to comply with the ADA; adopt a grievance procedure; conduct a Self-Evaluation; develop a Transition Plan.The City needs to: Adopt a statement giving notice of its intention to comply with the ADA that names the ADA Coordinator and provides her contact information, mirroring a model document. This document should be posted on the website as well as physically throughout the City. This is known as the City’s obligation to post notice under Title II of the ADA. Revise its present grievance procedure to mirror a model and widely disseminateon the website and physically. Revise its Self-Evaluation to include employment policies and practices, general operations, equally effective communication and program and facilities accessibility. Revise its Transition Plan to include structural modifications that will be made, the date by which they will be completed and the employee responsible for its occurrence. The City website lacks content required for compliance and appears not to be not screen reader accessible making it unusable for people for people with visual disabilities. In the 21st century, the website is the face of a city. It may be the first, or even only, contact potential residents and visitors have with the City. Regardless of how welcoming of people with disabilities are individuals who work for the City are, a website lacking information about disability policy and that is not screen reader compatible sends a negative message about the value that the City places on people with disabilities. Strengths Departments regularly collaborate with each other and appreciate the importance of complying with the ADA. Staff that we spoke with are committed to making Northampton inclusive of people with disabilities. There are many areas of excellence in how the City provides services to people with disabilities and substance use issues. Department heads were eager to have a round table discussion with other Department heads and the ADA Coordinator about ADA compliance where they could share information and ideas. Public Health, initiated a conversation requesting disability awareness and sensitivity training for staff and businesses in the City. Other departments, particularly the Forbes Library were open to the idea when asked. Interviews with City Staff Department: Human Resources Staff interviewed: Glenda Stoddard, Director The Director of Human Resources understands the City has an obligation to provide reasonable accommodation to employees with disabilities under Title I, the employment provision of the ADA and supports managers in providing it. She is not aware of having an opportunity to provide reasonable accommodation to applicants. We did not discuss the obligation to provide reasonable accommodation for work-related activities. She documents reasonable accommodation requests for the municipality. While she is confident that the schools appropriately provide reasonable accommodation, she is concerned that they may not document reasonable accommodation requests and responses. There is a lack of policy to support staff in implementing its Title I obligations. The City should consider adopting the following types of policies regarding its Title I obligations: A written reasonable accommodation policy that is disseminated to all employees and applicants. This should include who an employees or applicant should make a request from; how and when an employee/applicant should document their disability; how to appeal or grieve a decision not to provide an accommodation or to provide one different from the one requested. All staff and applicants should receive a copy of this policy. This policy should be on the City website. All staff should have training on the City’s reasonable accommodation policy. Policy regarding permissible and impermissible inquiries under Title I. This policy should delineate inquiries that are prohibited during the pre-conditional job offer phase and post conditional phase. The policy, with accompanying training, needs to be provided and disseminated to anyone involvedin the hiring process. This should include City Council members who participate in interviews, even if they are asking assigned questions from a prepared list. There is a general understanding about prohibited inquiries about gender, race and protected classes other than disability. It is not clear that the staff person responsible has had up to date training in Title I generally or specifically about impermissible inquiries. HR, hiring managers and supervisory staff should have training in Title I that include permissible inquiries. Job descriptions list essential but not marginal functions of jobs. In the sample of four job descriptions examined, it appears that some of the job functions listed as essential may be marginal at least in certain cases. When job descriptions are reviewed (we told that an outside consulting entityis doing this or will be soon) this should be taken into consideration. Department: Police Staff interviewed: Jody Kasper, Police Chief It appears that the Police Department is clear on its ADA obligations. It has had extensive training on recognizing and interacting with people with disabilities including people with mental health disabilities, autism and people with substance use issues. From the brief interview it is not clear that they know how to provide sign language interpreters. Lt Craig Kirouac is the mental health liaison. He has been involved in securing a grant from the Commonwealth’s DMH. In recent years, there have been changes to the police response to make it focus on prevention, diversion and de-escalation rather than solely on arrest. The Police Department has extensive contact with most, if not all, other City Departments. At times that could be arrest situations they often collaborate with social services and other agencies to develop a holistic situation. The mental health liaison will, when necessary pull together a team of providers representing housing, clinical support, elderly and CDH. They also work with Corrections, the DA and probate court. When the police PD arrests wheelchair users it calls the Fire Department if the individual uses a power chair. If they use a manual chair they remove the person from the chair. The police chef did not have time to assemble all policies on very short notice. It should be determined if police policy for arresting wheelchair users and other police interaction comply with DOJ Guidance found at https://www.ada.gov/q&a_law.htm . Department: Fire Staff interviewed: Jon Davine, Assistant Fire Chief, Emergency Management Coordinator Primarily discussed emergency response and management. They are in the process of developing a plan for people with addiction issues who are sheltering. Smith Voc. Tech is the emergency shelter for the City. He feels that it is accessible. People are notified of an emergency through the Circle Red System (reverse 911), social media, and local radio station. It is unclear how accessible Circle Red is. Website and social media do not appear to be accessible to people that use screen readers. They also partner with Elder Care to notify elders about emergencies. There a TDD on the premises. Staff did not know how to contact an interpreter. Shelters are run by the Red Cross, though this ultimately remains the City’s obligation under Title II. Included in what he City needs to determine is whether the Red Cross: has accessible cots, with a height of 17’’-19’’, arrangescots with sufficient room for wheelchair passage, places cots for people with mobility disabilities against a wall, allows for people with mobility disabilities to be in an integrated area with their family members, and Has a stockpile of durable medical equipment, including Hoyer lifts. There may be compliant cots, he doesn’t think so. There may be privacy screens, he is not sure. Both of these are required. There is no stockpile of durable medical equipment as required. There is are agreements with the PVTA to provide transportation to people with disabilities. The videos on the website recruiting volunteers to MRC and training in developing a 72 Hour Emergency Plan are not captioned. The 72 hour plan video does not address any issues specific to disability. They will be conducting a drill at UMass in the fall and would like to include disability issues in the drill. Red Cross and MRC will also be involved. They will begin meetings for it in the next few weeks. Department: Public Health Staff interviewed: Merridith O’Leary, Director Confirmed that shelter has no durable medical equipment or privacy screens but may have compliant cots. There are “Read Me” books for people to express themselves through pictures. It is unclear if these are available at the shelters. They have a person-centered approach that they need to extend to people with disabilities. She requested awareness/sensitivity training for training for City Employees. She would also like training for department employees on business’ obligations on service animals/therapy animals. They get lots of calls on this issue. We also discussed the need for both these types of training for businesses, maybe through a business association or the Chamber of Commerce. There is an MOU with Walgreens to provide meds to people who are sheltering. She requested a detailed version of my notes. Department: Public Works Staff interviewed: Donna LaScaleia, Director When asked how to escalate a response to access to a construction area she explained that in undertaking construction of a street all aspects of the infrastructure including utilities and pavement must be taken into consideration. Sometimes it is simply not safe to allow pedestrians to traverse a construction area. A study of sidewalk accessibility to develop a comprehensive sidewalk inventory is being conducted by Alta. It utilizes a wheelchair with sensors to measures slope, cross slope and pavement deterioration and irregularities. She does not know who would be responsible for installing a mirror to monitor traffic for a Deaf person and suggested that I contact Linda Desmond. There is no policy per se to request a curb cut in one’s neighborhood. An individual must request a driveway permit from the Building Commission to have a curb cut installed. She is not aware of anyone having done this and says that most people use their driveways to access the street or sidewalk. Department: Building Staff interviewed:Louis Hasbrouck, BuildingCommissioner The Building Commissioner is charged with enforcing Massachusetts Building Code standards not the ADA. While there is overlap between when the two codes become applicable, there are some differences. He is works with the MAAAB and is a candidate to me a member. He is committed to making building stock in the City compliant with the Commonwealth’s requirements which often coincide with ADA requirements. He is not responsible for implementing the City’s Transition Plan. Department: Senior Center Staff interviewed: Linda Desmond, Director The Senior Center regularly modifies policies and practices to accommodate people with disabilities. Examples include: showing movies with captions as a policy, offering chair as well as traditional yoga, regularly using the video relay service to communicate with Deaf and Hard of Hearing individuals and maintaining a list of certified signal language interpreters. Note:This is the only Department in the City that we are aware of that know how to identify and engage sign language interpreters. The Senior Center also has two lift-equipped vans and has wheelchairs and walkers available on site. Department: Forbes LibraryTime did not permit a discussion with Lilly Library staff. Staff interviewed: Lisa Downing, Librarian The Forbes Library regularly modifies policies and practices to provide access to people with disabilities. A few examples from our brief conversation include: pulling books and materials from upper stacks for people with mobility disabilities, extending due dates for people with learning disabilities, showing movies with captions on as policy, having a sensory story hour for children with autism, and allowing people with psychiatric and other disabilities who are homeless to use the library as a warming or cooling area. When necessary they will work with patrons with mental health and other disabilities to obtain services. There is flexible policy around acceptable behavior as long as other patrons aren’t disturbed. It appears that the Forbes Library may be a leader making modifications. It utilizes: an Advisory Board on disability issues, computers with screen reader software for members of the public, a computer screen enlargement tool- which needs to be updated, and a non-discrimination and accommodation policy. We were unable to find a copy of this policy on the Library webpage. The library considerers people with disabilities in making room arrangements. Website/Social Media This is a cursory overview of the ADA compliance of the City’s website by a non-expert. The website appears to be non-compliant and needs to be reviewed and revised by an individual who has expertise in web development and ADA compliant websites. Not all web developers have expertise in ADA compliance. Understanding of IT even at a high level is not necessarily indicative of an understanding of website development or ADA compliant websites. Documents missing from website: A statement posting notice of the City’s intent not to discriminate against people on basis of disability with the name and contact information for the ADA Coordinator. A copy of the City’s ADA Grievance procedure. Observations There is information about website accessibility with a link at the bottom of the page http://www.northamptonma.gov/Site/Accessibility. Users are guided to this page when they search under “accessibility” but not “ADA” or “disability” Photographs and graphics do not appear to be captioned. There is no clear place to go to find out about disability issues, whether it be about policies or how to report a sidewalk that has not been shoveled. Note: There is a link on the winter storm page to report unshoveled sidewalk. But is should be more visible as a disability related issue. Hands only CPR video linked to from City’s emergency management page is not captioned http://www.redcross.org/get-help/prepare-for-emergencies/be-red-cross-ready/hands-only-cpr The City’s Facebook page does not appear to have descriptions of photographs. The City’s Twitter feed does not appear to have descriptions of photographs.