ADA Non-Compliance in Government Buildings
Photo Credit: KUT Radio
June 23, 2014
Austinite John Woodley, wanted to explain to City Council just what it meant to be hearing-impaired while trying to participate in local government. So he handed out ear-plugs. District 3 Councilman Sabino Renteria took out his own hearing aid.
During a citizen’s communication presentation, Woodley alerted councilmembers to the shortcomings of technology required to accommodate the hearing-impaired. “I just want to understand what is being said,” Woodley said. “Due to my lack of proper and reasonable accommodation the city staff denies my ADA civil rights.”
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires that government buildings have certain accommodations such as ramps, handicap bathroom stalls and hand-bars. Less-obvious accommodations include additional listening devices, phones with video relay and closed captioning services that create transcripts and function during televised meetings.
Woodley also noted that the City Hall seating arrangement hinders his ability to see people speak. “I can’t see anybody talking, I can’t see the emotions of the people talking – what they’re [emphasis is on]” Woodley said. Audience seating allowed people to see the faces of council members, but not the faces of people presenting.
The presentation included photos of telephones incompatible with hearing aids, closed captioning cutting off during presentations and meeting transcripts with words cut out because of technology failures. “I didn’t even think about it, but that is a huge gap in the ability to have the closed captioning capture the entire conversation. I didn’t even think that that wasn’t happening,” said Sheri Gallo, representative for District 10.
During the live televising, closed captioning ran as long as the screen wasn’t being used for presentations. The June 11 meeting did not include a sign language interpreter and the later-released videos did not have a closed-captioning option. The accompanying transcript also was incorrect or incomplete in multiple places.
Updating the technology requires increasing the budget for the city’s Human Resources Department. Budget planning for 2016 hasn’t officially started yet, but council members were open to including budget expansion for ADA required technology. At the previous budget work session on June 10, closed captioning technology for televised meetings was reported to cost $40,000 to $50,000 a year. Because of changes in council structure, that cost has increased by $80,000 to $90,000. In the most recent budget forecast, another $83,000 would need to be allocated to increase services.
That increase includes the staff needed to cover meetings, and closed captioning for all the additional meetings created by the larger council. “We do a lot of presentations, and if they cannot understand what is being said during the presentation, that’s a huge miss,” said Ann Kitchen, representative for District 5.
Since the city budget has not been finalized there is no certainty that Human Resources will receive the necessary funds to update technology in City Hall. One building’s upgrades may be overshadowed by city-wide issues like housing, taxes and transportation.
The US has an estimated 48 million people with hearing loss, as reported by the Hearing Loss Association of America. About 70,000 Texans with hearing loss received “communication access services” or equipment by the state Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services. The department aids people with physical disabilities in order to help them “express their freedoms, participate in society to their individual potential, and reduce their isolation regardless of location, socioeconomic status, or degree of disability.”
June 23, 2014
Austinite John Woodley, wanted to explain to City Council just what it meant to be hearing-impaired while trying to participate in local government. So he handed out ear-plugs. District 3 Councilman Sabino Renteria took out his own hearing aid.
During a citizen’s communication presentation, Woodley alerted councilmembers to the shortcomings of technology required to accommodate the hearing-impaired. “I just want to understand what is being said,” Woodley said. “Due to my lack of proper and reasonable accommodation the city staff denies my ADA civil rights.”
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires that government buildings have certain accommodations such as ramps, handicap bathroom stalls and hand-bars. Less-obvious accommodations include additional listening devices, phones with video relay and closed captioning services that create transcripts and function during televised meetings.
Woodley also noted that the City Hall seating arrangement hinders his ability to see people speak. “I can’t see anybody talking, I can’t see the emotions of the people talking – what they’re [emphasis is on]” Woodley said. Audience seating allowed people to see the faces of council members, but not the faces of people presenting.
The presentation included photos of telephones incompatible with hearing aids, closed captioning cutting off during presentations and meeting transcripts with words cut out because of technology failures. “I didn’t even think about it, but that is a huge gap in the ability to have the closed captioning capture the entire conversation. I didn’t even think that that wasn’t happening,” said Sheri Gallo, representative for District 10.
During the live televising, closed captioning ran as long as the screen wasn’t being used for presentations. The June 11 meeting did not include a sign language interpreter and the later-released videos did not have a closed-captioning option. The accompanying transcript also was incorrect or incomplete in multiple places.
Updating the technology requires increasing the budget for the city’s Human Resources Department. Budget planning for 2016 hasn’t officially started yet, but council members were open to including budget expansion for ADA required technology. At the previous budget work session on June 10, closed captioning technology for televised meetings was reported to cost $40,000 to $50,000 a year. Because of changes in council structure, that cost has increased by $80,000 to $90,000. In the most recent budget forecast, another $83,000 would need to be allocated to increase services.
That increase includes the staff needed to cover meetings, and closed captioning for all the additional meetings created by the larger council. “We do a lot of presentations, and if they cannot understand what is being said during the presentation, that’s a huge miss,” said Ann Kitchen, representative for District 5.
Since the city budget has not been finalized there is no certainty that Human Resources will receive the necessary funds to update technology in City Hall. One building’s upgrades may be overshadowed by city-wide issues like housing, taxes and transportation.
The US has an estimated 48 million people with hearing loss, as reported by the Hearing Loss Association of America. About 70,000 Texans with hearing loss received “communication access services” or equipment by the state Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services. The department aids people with physical disabilities in order to help them “express their freedoms, participate in society to their individual potential, and reduce their isolation regardless of location, socioeconomic status, or degree of disability.”