[nabs-l] Accessibility of apartment documents

Sat Apr 23 04:28:36 UTC 2016

Kaiti,
I am not sure of the specific legal regulations and such, but I thought I would share with you what I do know and what I thought of when reading your email.
1. Explain to your landlord, manager, etc accessible ways of giving you information and making the facility equally accessible to you.  This gives them the opportunity to do their best to accomodate you up front.
2.  Leases are not all that long, maybe 3 or 4 pages and they are pretty straightforward.  Their format is typically very different than applications because the lease is more of a regular text document like with sentences and paragraphs and such whereas an application has lines and boxes to fill in information.  So scanning a lease should be different.  An option would be to get the paper copy and use the KNFB reader, or some sort of scanning software to save it to your computer or braille display or whatever.  Using these methods you would have your electronic version and the paper copy for future reference and to keep in your records. When you initially go over the lease, I personally always want someone I trust to come along as my reader.  Usually you go over the lease and sign it with the landlord or manager before moving in, and if you just have them read it to you, you don't know for sure if they are skipping anything or something like that.  I would bring a reader so that your trusted reader can read through it with you and your landlord and you can stop and ask questions to the landlord or manager as they arise. 
3. Although you should always keep your lease in your records until you are long gone from the place, you most likely won't ever need that document ever again.  So going over with the reader before you move in should be enough.  If for some unusual reason you needed to access it again, you could always use a reader again, if you did only have the paper version.
4. Although you obviously have the right to fight for accessibility in relation to your lease.  The lease would be the least of my worries.  Things that I would be more concerned about are, how do they require tenants to pay rent?  Some companies require tenants to pay online, and this may or may not be accessible.  Or even if they don't require online payment, I would want to make sure that I had equal access as far as paying rent.  Can you write a check?  Do you have to use some other form? Etc.
To me, that would be a bigger issue.
5. It seems from your email like they probably are trying to be accommodating but don't really get how to do that.  I'm sure you know to do this, but I just always start having a dialogue with them from the beginning about accessibility, accommodations, ADA, etc.  nothing major, just little tips here and there so they understand that it is something they need to keep in mind.  They can't put a notice on you door saying there going to have someone come spray for bugs the next day.  If you can't read print, that obviously won't work.  These are things they need to think about.  So sn ongoing dialogue is something I find to be very useful with people that are trying to be accommodating but don't know how.

Those are my thoughts.  I hope that helps a little bit.

Anna E Givens

> On Apr 22, 2016, at 9:12 PM, Kaiti Shelton via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> I'll be moving into my first big kid apartment (on my own with no
> roommates) this August.  I met with one of the realty agents that
> works for the apartment company today and really like what I saw in
> the viewing.  It looks like it will be a pretty good living situation,
> and although I've enjoyed having roommates I'm looking forward to
> having a little more control over my space (No more randomly moving
> things in the fridge, unexpected changes in the thermostat, etc).
> 
> I'm a little concerned about finding out what my accessibility-related
> rights are.  This is new for me and I am doing research on my own, but
> I thought turning here would also be useful.  I was a little
> disheartened when I found the company didn't have an electronic way
> for me to complete the apartment application.  The agent was nice
> enough to fill out most of it with me and was amenable to having my
> parents scan the completed copy as a PDF and email in their co-signer
> portion since they're in a different city, but as far as me filling it
> out in an accessible format she didn't seem to know of a way to make
> it work without messing up the formatting of the application form.
> I'm kind of feeling "whatever" about it at this point because the form
> was pretty short and painless/not necessarily worth a huge fuss over
> accessibility, but I am more concerned with making sure I get an
> accessible copy of the contract/lease so I can reference it if
> necessary while I am in the property.  I understand that having
> independent access to this kind of documentation is very important,
> and want to make sure I start working with the company in advance if
> necessary.
> 
> My questions are: If the company doesn't already have an electronic
> copy of the lease how, exactly, would they be required to share it
> with me in a format I can use?  What would be acceptable options to
> tell them if they have no clue?  If they decide to send it somewhere
> else to be brailled would that come out of their pocket or my own?
> 
> Of course, I recognize that they could/should have a scanner somewhere
> in their offices, and therefore scanning the lease and making an
> accessible copy wouldn't be too terribly hard.  However, I'm not sure
> who's responsibility it would be and am a little skeptical of that
> working out if they were unable to make the application available to
> me in a format I can use.  I really don't mind the application, but I
> honestly don't want to sit down with a reader and go through a 60-plus
> page document if I can help it.  2 pages are one thing, ut from what I
> understand leases are much longer.
> 
> Any tips or bits of knowledge anyone could pass on would be appreciated.
> 
> -- 
> Kaiti Shelton
> University of Dayton-Music Therapy
> "You can live the life you want; blindness is not what holds you back!"
> 
> _______________________________________________
> nabs-l mailing list
> nabs-l at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs-l_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for nabs-l:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nabs-l_nfbnet.org/annajee82%40gmail.com