Effective Communication
People with disabilities cannot participate in government-sponsored programs, services, or activities if they cannot understand what is being communicated. What good would it do for a deaf person to attend a city council meeting to hear the debate on a proposed law if there was no qualified sign language interpreter or real-time captioning (that is, a caption of what is being said immediately after the person says it)? The same result occurs when a blind patron attempts to access the internet on a computer at a county’s public library when the computer is not equipped with screen reader or text enlargement software. Providing effective communication means offering auxiliary aids and services to enable someone with a disability to participate in the program, service, or activity.
Types of Auxiliary Aids and Services
There are a variety of auxiliary aids and services. Here are a few examples.
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For individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing: qualified sign-language and oral interpreters, note takers, computer-aided transcription services, written materials, telephone headset amplifiers, assistive listening systems, telephones compatible with hearing aids, open and closed captioning, videotext displays, and TTYs (teletypewriters).
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For individuals with who are blind or have low vision: qualified readers, taped texts, Braille materials, large print materials, materials in electronic format on compact discs or in emails, and audio recordings.
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For individuals with speech impairments: TTYs, computer stations, speech synthesizers, and communications boards.
Persons with disabilities should have the opportunity to request an auxiliary aid, and you should give ‘primary consideration’ to the aid requested. Primary consideration means that the aid requested should be supplied unless: (1) you can show that there is an equally effective way to communicate; or (2) the aid requested would fundamentally alter the nature of the program, service, or activity.
Example: A person who became deaf late in life is not fluent in sign language. To participate in her defense of criminal charges, she requests real time computer-aided transcription services. Instead, the court provides a qualified sign language interpreter. Is this effective? No. Providing a sign language interpreter to someone who does not use sign language is not effective communication.
The Cost of Doing Business
The expense of making a program, service, or activity accessible or providing a reasonable modification or auxiliary aid may not be charged to a person with a disability requesting the accommodation.20
Example: What if a person asks for a sign language interpreter at a city council meeting? The cost may not be passed along to the person requesting that accommodation.
20 28 C.F.R. § 35.130(f).
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