Proposed Plan Regarding How to Ensure Effective Communication. By April 1, 2016, DVR will submit to OCR for its review and approval a full set of proposed policies and procedures (Proposed Plan) to ensure that all persons with disabilities, including those with disabilities affecting cognitive or neurological processing, will receive appropriate auxiliary aids and services leading to effective communication, and how it will honor primary consideration, except where doing so would impose a fundamental alteration or undue burden. The Proposed Plan will include provisions for how DVR will meet the needs of those with nonstandard requests for auxiliary aids and services and how people can file grievances if they believe they are not receiving timely and appropriate auxiliary aids and services. Communication with people with communication-related disabilities must be as effective as with those who do not have communication-related disabilities. 28 C.F.R. § 35.160(a)(1). The Proposed Plan will also address each of the subjects listed below.
Proposed Plan Regarding How to Ensure Effective Communication. By September 30, 2015, the Center will submit to OCR for its review and approval a full set of proposed policies and procedures to ensure that all persons with disabilities will receive appropriate auxiliary aids and services leading to effective communication, except where doing so would impose a fundamental alteration or undue burden. The policies and procedures will include provisions for how the Center will meet the needs of those with nonstandard requests for auxiliary aids and services, including those who need transcripts and summaries of conversations, and how people can file complaints if they believe they are not receiving timely and appropriate auxiliary aids and services.
a) When fundamental alteration or undue burden defenses apply, the Plan will require the Center to provide equally effective alternative access. The Plan will require the Center, in providing equally effective alternate access, to take any actions that do not result in a fundamental alteration or undue financial and administrative burdens, but nevertheless ensure that, to the maximum extent possible, individuals with disabilities receive the same benefits or services as others. To provide equally effective alternate access, alternates are not required to produce the identical result or level of achievement for persons with and without disabilities, but must afford persons with disabilities equal opportunity to obtain the same result, to gain the same benefit, or to reach the same level of achievement, in the most integrated setting appropriate to the person’s needs.
b) The Plan must include sufficient quality assurance procedures, backed by adequate personnel and financial resources for full implementation.
c) The Plan will require the Center to establish and maintain a Log that reports any effective communication request made by a client or potential client that is out-of-the-ordinary or is denied by the Center. The Plan will describe examples of the types of requests that are to be considered “ordinary” and, as such, would not need to be logged unless denied. The Log documentation will include: the requested auxiliary aid or service, the Center staff member who received and responded to the request, and whether the request was honored, denied or modified. If the request was denied or modified, the Log will reflect if an alternative auxiliary aid or service was offered and whether the alternative was accepted. The Log will also reflect the same information regarding all compl...
