[blindkid] Community track

Fri Apr 9 19:17:11 UTC 2010

Hi Carly,

Ah, good old discrimination.  The spirit of the "policy" that the 
Commissioner spoke of is exclusionary instead of inclusionary!

I'm of the school of thought that you need to educate them not only 
about your child's needs and abilities, but also about the law.  Most 
entities have no idea that they are discriminating.  They believe 
their concern for "safety" makes complete sense.  They are usually 
surprised to learn that they could be violating a person's civil rights.

Susan mentioned the Office for Civil Rights.  You may or may not need 
to go all the way to lodging a complaint, but you do need to arm 
yourself with the words of the various laws.  There is the federal 
law, ADA, and your state may have a civil rights law, too.  I have 
used the phrase, "I know you wouldn't want to be in violation of the 
law and I certainly wouldn't want to have to lodge a complaint on my 
son's behalf with the Office for Civil Rights."  That suddenly puts 
them on alert. In my experience, entities do not want to be in 
violation of laws and they begin backing off.

Below are some pieces of ADA for your reading pleasure.  The link to 
it is also included so that you can begin familiarizing yourself with 
it.  Here are links for Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, IDEA, 
and the federal Office for Civil Rights.  I believe every parent 
should have these in their Favorites!

http://idea.ed.gov/download/statute.html
http://www2.ed.gov/policy/rights/reg/ocr/edlite-34cfr104.html
http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/howto.html

Happy reading!

Carol

Carol Castellano, President
National Organization of Parents of Blind Children
973-377-0976
carol_castellano at verizon.net
www.nopbc.org

http://www.ada.gov/reg3a.html#Anchor-36104

Place of public accommodation means a facility, operated by a private 
entity, whose operations affect commerce and fall within at least one 
of the following categories --

(1) An inn, hotel, motel, or other place of lodging, except for an 
establishment located within a building that contains not more than 
five rooms for rent or hire and that is actually occupied by the 
proprietor of the establishment as the residence of the proprietor;

(2) A restaurant, bar, or other establishment serving food or drink;

(3) A motion picture house, theater, concert hall, stadium, or other 
place of exhibition or entertainment;

(4) An auditorium, convention center, lecture hall, or other place of 
public gathering;

(5) A bakery, grocery store, clothing store, hardware store, shopping 
center, or other sales or rental establishment;

(6) A laundromat, dry-cleaner, bank, barber shop, beauty shop, travel 
service, shoe repair service, funeral parlor, gas station, office of 
an accountant or lawyer, pharmacy, insurance office, professional 
office of a health care provider, hospital, or other service establishment;

(7) A terminal, depot, or other station used forspecified public 
transportation;

(8) A museum, library, gallery, or other place of public display or collection;

(9) A park, zoo, amusement park, or other place of recreation;

(10) A nursery, elementary, secondary, undergraduate, or postgraduate 
private school, or other place of education;

(11) A day care center, senior citizen center, homeless shelter, food 
bank, adoption agency, or other social service center establishment; and

(12) A gymnasium, health spa, bowling alley, golf course, or other 
place of exercise or recreation.

Private club means a private club or establishment exempted from 
coverage under title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000a(e)).

Private entity means a person or entity other than a public entity.

Public accommodation means a private entity that owns, leases (or 
leases to), or operates a place of public accommodation.

Public entity means --

(1) Any State or local government;

(2) Any department, agency, special purpose district, or other 
instrumentality of a State or States or local government; and

(3) The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, and any commuter 
authority (as defined in section 103(8) of the Rail Passenger Service 
Act). (45 U.S.C. 541)

Undue burden means significant difficulty or expense. In determining 
whether an action would result in an undue burden, factors to be 
considered include --

(1) The nature and cost of the action needed under this part;

(2) The overall financial resources of the site or sites involved in 
the action; the number of persons employed at the site; the effect on 
expenses and resources; legitimate safety requirements that are 
necessary for safe operation, including crime prevention measures; or 
the impact otherwise of the action upon the operation of the site;

(3) The geographic separateness, and the administrative or fiscal 
relationship of the site or sites in question to any parent 
corporation or entity;

(4) If applicable, the overall financial resources of any parent 
corporation or entity; the overall size of the parent corporation or 
entity with respect to the number of its employees; the number, type, 
and location of its facilities; and

(5) If applicable, the type of operation or operations of any parent 
corporation or entity, including the composition, structure, and 
functions of the workforce of the parent corporation or entity.

(a) Prohibition of discrimination. No individual shall be 
discriminated against on the basis of disability in the full and 
equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, 
advantages, or accommodations of any place of public accommodation by 
any private entity who owns, leases (or leases to), or operates a 
place of public accommodation.

Sec.36.202 Activities.

(a) Denial of participation. A public accommodation shall not subject 
an individual or class of individuals on the basis of a disability or 
disabilities of such individual or class, directly, or through 
contractual, licensing, or other arrangements, to a denial of the 
opportunity of the individual or class to participate in or benefit 
from the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or 
accommodations of a place of public accommodation.

Sec.36.203 Integrated settings.

(a) General. A public accommodation shall afford goods, services, 
facilities, privileges, advantages, and accommodations to an 
individual with a disability in the most integrated setting 
appropriate to the needs of the individual.

(b) Opportunity to participate. Notwithstanding the existence of 
separate or different programs or activities provided in accordance 
with this subpart, a public accommodation shall not deny an 
individual with a disability an opportunity to participate in such 
programs or activities that are not separate or different.

(c) Accommodations and services. (1) Nothing in this part shall be 
construed to require an individual with a disability to accept an 
accommodation, aid, service, opportunity, or benefit available under 
this part that such individual chooses not to accept.

Sec.36.301 Eligibility criteria.

(a) General. A public accommodation shall not impose or apply 
eligibility criteria that screen out or tend to screen out an 
individual with a disability or any class of individuals with 
disabilities from fully and equally enjoying any goods, services, 
facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations, unless such 
criteria can be shown to be necessary for the provision of the goods, 
services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations being offered.

(b) Safety. A public accommodation may impose legitimate safety 
requirements that are necessary for safe operation. Safety 
requirements must be based on actual risks and not on mere 
speculation, stereotypes, or generalizations about individuals with 
disabilities.

(c) Charges. A public accommodation may not impose a surcharge on a 
particular individual with a disability or any group of individuals 
with disabilities to cover the costs of measures, such as the 
provision of auxiliary aids, barrier removal, alternatives to barrier 
removal, and reasonable modifications in policies, practices, or 
procedures, that are required to provide that individual or group 
with the nondiscriminatory treatment required by the Act or this part.

At 11:29 PM 4/8/2010, you wrote:
>Hi all! I'm an avid reader of this list and I am so impressed with the
>excellent advice and support that's offered here! So I'm coming to you for a
>bit of that for our family. We adopted our son Brian two years ago. He has
>albinism and with it, low vision. He is 7 years old and in 1st grade. We
>signed him up for community Track this spring. He had his first practice
>tonight. In an effort to create a comfortable adjustment, I contacted the
>coach (it's a husband/wife team, and I spoke with the wife) and asked her if
>I could tell her a little bit about our son. We had a very pleasant,
>hour-long conversation. She has a teaching background, a son with a
>disability, and seemed very understanding, warm, and willing to be
>accomodating. That said, I didn't ask for any "unusual" accomodations, like
>equipment or a one-on-one coach. His needs actually relate more to his
>having been institutionalized for the first five years of his life, and he
>is still playing catch-up in terms of skills like jumping with both feet and
>landing with both feet, as well as other coordination skills. I mentioned
>that he has a strong aversion to loud sounds, especially sudden sounds, and
>that he cannot stand the sound of the gun. I said that I want him to
>participate in practices but not in meets, and that in the next year or so
>when he is better able to tolerate the gun then he can start attending
>meets. For now, I just want him to have the peer experience and hopefully
>gain some skill and confidence. She said she thought that was an excellent
>idea.
>
>Well, when I arrived at practice, the Track Commissioner was there. She came
>over and greeted me, and then proceeded to explain to me that she is quite
>concerned about Brian's safety and the safety of the other players. She
>mentioned this at least three times in the course of our 45-minute
>conversation. I was shocked... will I ever stop being shocked? She also said
>that the "Board" has a policy on the website (implying strongly that I
>should have known about it and read it ahead of time) that requires any
>child with special needs must have a written request for accomodations. (She
>had a copy with her. It's dated December, 1998) It states that the request
>must be made in writing, it must include "the child's name, parent's names,
>the sport, diagnosis and its affect on the child's ability to participate in
>the sport, as well as the type of acommodation requested" and must be
>submitted to the Board, and that "No request for accommodation will be
>considered if these procedures are not followed." In other words, my calling
>the coach to discuss Brian ahead of time was woefully insufficient. The
>policy also states: "Reasonable accomodations are actions, which can be
>taken that will not place undue hardship on the association and its members.
>No accommodation will be granted which will expose any participant to an
>undue risk of harm." As far as I could determine, this policy has not been
>updated since 1998. (I should add that I'm pretty certain that the
>Commissioner involved herself when the coach contacted her to ask about
>whether there was any other signal they could use other than the gun. This
>was a suggestion the coach made to me in our conversation, not the other way
>around, and I specifically said this probably wasn't fair to ask for and
>something I wouldn't expect. I think she was bending over backwards to
>accomodate us, and asked the Commissioner about it on our behalf... hence
>the visit to practice tonight.)
>
>The Commissioner mentioned that "special needs" are her "area" but when I
>asked for specifics, she said she is an elementary school paraprofessional
>working with kids who have autism, ADHD, EBD and the like but has never
>worked with a blind or low vision child before. I tried to take this as an
>opportunity to educate, but it was not easy. She was the most ignorant and
>resistant person I've come into contact with to date. In the course of our
>conversation, she stressed that her coaches are all volunteers and that it
>was very unfair to think that they should accomodate Brian in any way. She
>added that many of them would probably quit if a child like Brian were to
>enroll on their team. She admitted, however, that Brian's coach didn't
>complain about anything I had told her about Brian and did not seem unduly
>concerned. I told her that it was never my intention to drop and go, and
>that I would be doing much of the accomodating myself. (I had said this to
>the coach in our earlier conversation.) Toward the end of our conversation,
>she added that she is also very concerned about how other parents will feel
>when they see Brian in Track. Then she said, "You know what I mean, I'm
>sure." I said, "Actually, I really haven't met anyone who has been concerned
>about Brian in that way." She seemed very fixated on the idea that Brian's
>presence creates some kind of grave danger for everyone involved.
>
>I am wondering specifically if ADA or IDEA address what in my opinion is a
>draconian policy, and whether this organization falls under the umbrella of
>either. It's a community sports organization which as far as I can tell,
>doesn't receive any funding from the school district, but does use the
>public school facilities. I'm not thinking about bringing legal action, but
>I like to know what the law provides, more as an opportunity to educate, not
>to bully.
>
>Thanks in advance for any thoughts. God bless! --Carolynn Barnes
>_______________________________________________
>blindkid mailing list
>blindkid at nfbnet.org
>http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindkid_nfbnet.org
>To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info 
>for blindkid:
>http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindkid_nfbnet.org/blindchildren%40verizon.net