Meeting News - August 11, 2008 - (Page 56)

chapter 3 2008 meeting planners handbook The ‘411’ on ADA: Ensuring Accessibility Will there be disabled attendees at your next conference? Have you thought through the practical and legal ramifications of accommodating those attendees? If you fail to read the conference contract closely and plan thoroughly, you may jeopardize the success of your conference and subject yourself to legal liability. q General background on the ADA. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires, among other things, that places of public accommodation (including hotels) ensure that everyone, regardless of disability, has an equal opportunity to enjoy their services and facilities.This obligation includes the need to remove communication barriers in existing facilities where it is readily achievBen Tesdahl able to do so, make reasonable modifications in policies and procedures (such as allowing guide dogs in a nopets hotel), and provide auxiliary aids and services leading to effective communication if it is not an undue burden to do so. Notably, however, the ADA’s accessibility requirements generally do not apply to facilities built prior to the enactment of the ADA in 1990. q Practical conference planning considerations. A few recommendations: First and foremost, do not take the hotel’s word that its conference facilities are accessible to the handicapped. Instead, check it out for yourself during a site visit. In one instance, a conference planner discovered that a hotel ballroom that was allegedly accessible could be accessed only by entering the rear of the facility and using an elevator in the hotel’s kitchen. Other less obvious problems can arise even when you’ve done a site visit. For example, buffet-style meals may not be practical for those with disabilities, and meeting or dining tables may be placed too closely together for wheelchairs to maneuver. Registration tables must be at an accessible height, and all shuttle buses must be accessible to disabled attendees. Finally, conference brochures should require disabled participants to report any auxiliary aids or other special needs they may have (such as special lighting, sign language interpreters, or Braille materials) as far in advance as possible so that you and/or the hotel can meet those special needs. Ben Tesdahl, Esq., is an attorney concentrating in nonprofit, corporate, tax, and contract law, including meetings and conventions law. He is with the law firm Powers, Pyles, Sutter & Verville, PC in Washington, DC. He can be reached at (202) 4666550 or at ben.tesdahl@ppsv.com. This article appears courtesy of sister magazine Successful Meetings. From the Forum Budgeting for Attendees With Impairments Can someone tell me how to define “reasonable accommodation” when it comes to expenses and the Americans with Disabilities Act? In order for me to provide an assisted listening device for one attendee (including an audio engineer to follow the person from breakout to breakout), it would cost my organization $500 per day. For a four-day conference, this is $2,000. I am already over budget on my AV and unfortunately do not have a line item for ADA. To me $2,000 is not reasonable. Anonymous You should be budgeting 10 to 15 percent of your total budget for disability accommodations. My guess is that your total budget is much more than $20,000. An ALD [assisted listening device] doesn’t need an audio engineer. ALDs can be infrared systems that work with the existing sound system. You need to do more research on just exactly what is needed by the person with the hearing impairment. You might be surprised to find that having someone take notes for them, or having lecture notes provided ahead of time, or even having someone type furiously on a laptop next to him might be acceptable. Bottom line: If the $2,000 isn’t a substantial amount that threatens the total budget of your organization, calling it an unreasonable expense will get you nowhere with the federal government if you are filed upon. Ciritta Park, Former Planner and Co-Author, Accessible Meetings and Conventions, Dublin, OH 56 MeetingNews August 11, 2008 www.meetingnews.com http://www.meetingnews.com

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Meeting News - August 11, 2008

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