Resources on this page:
- Why is accessibility and language access in public meetings important?
- Considerations for Individuals with Mobility Disabilities
- Considerations for Individuals with Visual Disabilities
- Considerations for Individuals with Hearing Disabilities
- Considerations for Individuals with Learning, Cognitive, Intellectual, and Neurodevelopmental Disabilities
- Considerations for Individuals with Limited English Proficiency
- Checklist for Accessible Public Events & Meetings
- Definitions
Public meetings are a forum for people to share their ideas and opinions on important issues. Accessible public meetings mean that everyone has the opportunity to participate in the public process, regardless of language or ability.
In addition, the State of Colorado has a statutory obligation to ensure equivalent and equitable access to its programs, services, and activities, which includes the public participation process in public meetings.
Keys to Access
The State of Colorado is home to a growing and diverse population of individuals with disabilities and limited English proficiency (LEP). Research estimates that roughly 10.4% of all Coloradans have at least one disability that significantly impairs one or more life activities. When invisible disabilities and national statistics are taken into account, this number approaches 25%. In 2014, the Civil Rights Division of the United States estimated that approximately 309,729 Coloradans reported limited English proficiency, which represents a significant barrier to the public participation process.
Together, persons with disabilities that impair one or more life activities and those with limited English proficiency represent nearly 914,177 Coloradans—roughly 16% of the state’s population.
We should never assume that any one delivery method is accessible to all individuals. Instead, the State of Colorado is committed to ensuring effective communication and access to the State’s programs, services, and activities.
Therefore, it is critical that State agencies take proactive steps to ensure their public meetings are accessible to all participants. The following outlines best practices for this effort.
Persons with mobility disabilities encounter the most obvious barriers, including maneuvering through narrow spaces, navigating steps, traveling on rough surfaces, accessing bathroom facilities, accessing technology, and reaching and seeing items placed at conventional heights.
In addition, some individuals with mobility disabilities may need accommodation to participate in group activities that require specific motor functions. For example, a meeting activity requiring participants to complete a survey at the end of the session.
Designate an Accessibility Coordinator for the Event
The Accessibility Coordinator is an advocate whose role is specifically designed to ensure access for all. Designating an Accessibility Coordinator ensures that accessibility is viewed as essential to the delivery of quality services. When businesses make a profit in the private industry, that does not mean the mission is complete; a business’s job is to make a profit, again and again.
Likewise, the State of Colorado is committed to ensuring equal access to its programs, services, and activities so our mission is ongoing. Designating an Accessibility Coordinator for an event or public meeting ensures consideration for individuals with disabilities and those with limited English proficiency.
The Accessibility Coordinator should consider the location and physical structures that may prevent individuals with physical disabilities from participating, and work to remove barriers to access.
The Accessibility Coordinator should also serve as the reasonable accommodation and ADA grievance point of contact for the event or meeting.
Accessibility Coordinator’s Shortlist for Physical Access:
- Avoid using facilities with carpet that makes maneuvering mobility devices difficult
- Evaluate lavatory and bathroom facilities for accessibility prior to the meeting (view the accessibility checklist)
- Remove objects from the path of travel
- Rearrange tables, chairs, display racks, and other furniture as needed
- Provide assistance in any activity that requires specific motor skills (if needed)
Persons with visual disabilities depend on other senses to perceive their environment and other information and may use guides to navigate a physical space and/or assistive technology to interact with digital and physical content.
Challenges include but are not limited to the following:
- Multimedia content that conveys information visually
- Text that is presented without an audio or real text equivalent
- Hard copies of documents without a Braille equivalent
- Facial expressions or body language that convey context or meaning
Please Note: Some challenges are complex and require detailed consideration of the culture of the impacted community.
Ensure Staff are Trained on Disability Etiquette
Disability etiquette promotes inclusion and respect among all people. Individuals who are blind or have low vision rely on other senses to perceive the world around them. As such, they may experience significant challenges interpreting non-verbal communication (so-called, “reading the room”).
However, you should always ask if your assistance is needed and how you can assist. Do not assume that your assistance is necessary. Good intentions are always appreciated but asking before providing assistance is the correct choice.
Take proactive steps to ensure you are effectively communicating with the individual and be inclusive with the types of communication and presentation tools you use.
Accessibility Coordinator Shortlist for Visual Disabilities:
- Avoid using small print to communicate
- Remove objects that may obstruct the path of travel
- Ensure your policies and procedures do not prohibit the use of service animals
- Contract with local vendors to provide Braille and large print publications
- Ensure digital documents are accessible to assistive technology
- Use disability sensitivity best practices when interacting with citizens with visual disabilities
- Ensure your facility has appropriate signage, indicating the availability of auxiliary aids
Persons with hearing disabilities depend on other senses to perceive audible information and may use interpreters or other auxiliary aids to communicate with others.
Challenges include but are not limited to the following:
- Spoken word delivery in presentation
- Non-verbal communication
- Physical and structural barriers
- Group meetings without access to assistive technology or translation services
- Social interaction (interpreting body language and verbal cues, etc.)
- Reluctance to disclose needs or other information due to historical marginalization
- Interactions with individuals with unique accents or a soft voice
- Negative attitudes of those who are frustrated with the effort to communicate differently than they are accustomed to
- Difficulty obtaining accommodations
- Concerns about their ability to communicate effectively
Please Note: Some challenges are complex and require detailed consideration of the culture of the impacted community.
Look for More Ways to Communicate
Consider how an individual with a hearing disability may communicate. Do not assume that American Sign Language (ASL) is the preferred language of all persons with hearing disabilities. Many people with hearing disabilities that developed later in life rely on things like lip reading or handwritten notes.
Remember that effective messages must be clearly dictated by the messenger and correctly interpreted by the receiver.
Lip readers will struggle with your message if you’re chewing gum while speaking. Just because an individual can speak does not mean they can hear. Some people prefer to receive messages by note but respond with sound.
Please Note: Handwritten notes, while often effective when no other auxiliary aid is available, are not a proper accommodation or an effective long-term plan on their own.
Accessibility Coordinator Shortlist for Hearing Disabilities:
- Contract with local vendors to provide qualified interpreters
- Incorporate auxiliary aids such as TTY, VRI, VRS, Purple, Ubi Duo machines, handwritten notes, and text communication
- Ensure your facility has appropriate signage, indicating the availability
of auxiliary aids - Avoid chewing gum while interacting with persons with hearing disabilities
- Utilize facilities that incorporate auxiliary services like looping systems for hard-of-hearing participants
- Ensure video and audio include a text equivalent, like closed captions or CART
The spectrum of learning, cognitive, intellectual, and neurodevelopmental disabilities is very broad. This group set may include attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder, dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, speech processing disorders, autism, Down syndrome, or any number of processing-related disabilities. Individuals within this spectrum will have a wide range of communication preferences and learning styles and should be viewed as a person first with complex identities and abilities.
In general, persons with learning, cognitive, intellectual, and neurodevelopmental disabilities may have difficulty receiving and processing complex information and navigating social interactions. Learning, cognitive, intellectual, and neurodevelopmental-related disabilities can be as varied as mobility-related disabilities.
It’s important to consider how you communicate and provide space for interpretation. Do not assume that visual cues, innuendo, jargon, or slang will be received as intended.
Challenges include but are not limited to the following:
- Participation in group events
- On-the-spot comprehension of complex topics and ideas
- Complex language
- Navigating environments
- Time limits
- Unstructured presentation or delivery methods
Please Note: Some challenges are complex and require detailed consideration of the culture of the impacted community.
Simplify the Language and Be Patient
Albert Einstein said that if you can’t explain something simply enough for anyone to understand, it means you don’t understand it well enough yourself.
Practice speaking at a 6th, 7th, or 8th-grade level and exercise patience to ensure individuals with learning, cognitive, intellectual, and neurodevelopmental disabilities can understand the message and have time to process it.
In group activities, consider who is paired with whom. Look for strengths that complement everyone’s ability and contributions and structure your presentation on simplicity and collaboration. This will give everyone a chance to process the information and participate.
Be flexible in how you communicate. Individuals with learning, cognitive, intellectual, and neurodevelopmental disabilities may receive information best in alternative formats like audio recordings or notes.
Accessibility Coordinator Shortlist for Learning, Cognitive, Intellectual, and Neurodevelopmental Disabilities:
- Discuss instruction and communication methods confidentially to identify the best way to help participants learn and receive information
- Ask for feedback to ensure the message is conveyed and received properly
- Be patient and work to decrease stress in group settings
- Avoid spontaneous changes in the presentation and group environment
- Reduce time pressures (if possible)
- Give assignments early
- Let the participants pace themselves
Persons with limited English proficiency may have difficulty processing statements when the information is received in a language other than their mother tongue. It is critical that agencies maintain collective mindfulness about their message and environment to ensure programs, services, activities, and information are available to all individuals, regardless of language or ability.
Challenges include but are not limited to the following:
- Social interactions with English-only speakers
- The ability to process information without an interpreter
- Information conveyed only in English via audio, video, or text (tests, handouts, sign-in sheets, etc.)
- Participation in group activities without proper interpretation services
Please Note: Some challenges are complex and require detailed consideration of the culture of the impacted community.
Integrate Professional, Dedicated Interpreters and Interpreting Resources into the Process
Individuals with limited English proficiency will not have the ability to participate or effectively communicate without the appropriate resources.
Keeping a pen and pad handy and utilizing free translation resources like Google Translate can be effective for simple communication but these tools will not suffice for effective communication nor will they ensure the State complies with local and federal laws. When in doubt, seek out professional services.
Accessibility Coordinator Shortlist for Limited English Proficiency Individuals:
- Contract with qualified interpreters and increase their visibility by introducing the interpreter to the individual or group
- Contract with telephone and video interpretation services to ensure resources are available on short notice
- Provide dual language materials that can be shared with participants
- Foster a culture of inclusion and awareness for limited English proficiency participants
- Be adaptive and supportive of language access needs
- Poll your audience to identify their preferred communication methods
- Include accommodation language that directs participants to the appropriate contact for requesting interpreter services
- Assign an accessibility coordinator
- Ensure staff are trained on disability etiquette
- Look for more ways to communicate
- Simplify the language and be patient
- Integrate professional, dedicated interpreters and interpreting resources into the process
Auxiliary Aids
Auxiliary Aids include but are not limited to qualified readers, taped text, audio recordings, Braille or large print materials, assistive technology, or other effective methods of making audible, written, and visually represented information accessible to individuals.
Braille
Braille is a form of written language for blind people, in which characters are represented by patterns of raised dots that are felt with the fingertips.
Communication Access Realtime Translation
Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) transcribes and translates spoken text and sound into words. While words are spoken or played, the text appears in real-time on a large screen that everyone can see or on a laptop, or other mobile device.
Closed Captioning
Closed Captioning (CC) is the process of displaying text on a television, video screen, or other visual display to provide additional or interpretive information.
Covered Entity
A covered entity is an employer, employment agency, labor organization, private company, or joint labor-management group that has federally mandated obligations under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Effective Communication
The purpose of effective communication is to ensure persons with vision, hearing, or speech disabilities can communicate with, receive information from, and convey information to, a covered entity.
I Speak Cards
I Speak Cards are used to help identify the language in which the bearer best communicates. Each card includes a script in both English and the language selected to indicate to the receiver what type of interpretation services will be needed to effectively communicate.
Language Access Plan
A language access plan is a document that spells out how to provide services who are non-English speaking or have limited English proficiency.
Large Print
Large print documents are typically printed in 18-point font or greater and used to communicate information to individuals with limited or low vision.
Limited English Proficiency (LEP)
LEP persons are individuals who do not speak English as their primary language and who have a limited ability to read, speak, write, or understand the English language.
Looping
A hearing loop or audio induction loop is a system that provides sound for individuals who use hearing aids.
Notetakers
Notetakers are a type of accommodation that supports an individual's ability to capture clear and accurate notes.
Phone Interpreting Services
A phone interpreting service connects human interpreters via telephone who wish to speak to each other but do not share a common language. The telephone interpreter converts the messenger's language into a language that is most effective for the receiver.
Qualified Interpreters
A qualified interpreter is an individual evaluated for their interpreting skills and has shown a high level of competence in at least two languages.
Qualified Readers
A qualified reader can read effectively, accurately, and impartially, using any necessary specialized vocabulary.
Screen Readers
Screen readers are applications that allow blind or visually impaired users to understand the text that is displayed on the computer screen with a speech synthesizer or braille display.
Title VI Complaint Procedure
A Title VI Complaint Procedure is a process in which an individual may file a complaint alleging discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in the provision of services, activities, programs, or benefits by the State of Colorado.
TTY and Relay Services
TTY-based telecommunications relay services permit persons with a hearing or speech disability to use the telephone system via a text telephone, also known as Teletypewriters (TTY), or another device to call persons with or without such disabilities.
Video Remote Interpreting Services (VRI/VRS)
Video Remote Interpreting (VRI) is a video telecommunication service that uses devices like web cameras or videophones to provide sign language or spoken language interpreting services.