Definitions
This is the ASL translation and plain language version of Cobb v Georgia Department of Community Supervision ADA Policy.
ADA Coordinator
ADA Coordinator – This person is picked by the Commissioner. The ADA Coordinator works for DCS. The ADA Coordinator will work to check that DCS follows the ADA law.
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) - The ADA is a law that protects the rights of people with disabilities. The law does not let jobs, schools, or places open to all people keep people with disabilities out or not give them the same services everyone else gets. The ADA protects the rights of people with disabilities the same way that other laws protect people because of their race, color, sex, what country they were born in, their age, and their religion. The ADA also gives people with disabilities the same chance everyone gets to be a part of jobs, go to places everyone can go to, use state or local government services, and to have phone and internet services.
Auxiliary Aids and Services
Auxiliary Aids and Services can mean:
- For deaf and hard of hearing people –
- Qualified interpreters in person or online through video remote interpreting (VRI) services;
- People who take notes;
- Auto-captions made by a computer;
- A person to write captions at the same time people are sharing information, called “CART” (Communication Access Real-Time Translation);
- Sharing information with written copies;
- Devices that a person wears to make sound louder;
- Devices that are built into a room to send sound direct to a device a person wears;
- Other ways that work to send information to a person who is deaf or hard of hearing;
2. For people who are blind or have low vision –
- People who are trained to read written information out loud;
- Written information that is read out loud and recorded that way;
- Written information that has been printed in Braille;
- Written information that has been printed with large font;
- Other ways that work to make written information work for people who are blind or have low vision;
3. DCS might buy special devices or might change devices they already have; and
4. DCS might use other services or do other things not listed here to make information sharing work better
Direct Threat to Health and Safety
Direct Threat to Health and Safety – The ADA does have one rule that means DCS can keep a person with a disability out of DCS programs, services, or activities. It may be dangerous to DCS staff or other people who are there to have a specific person with a disability in our programs, services, or activities. It may be dangerous for that person as well. If it is dangerous, you can keep that person with a disability out of our programs, services, or activities. But you can’t decide to keep out a person with a disability just because you don’t like people with disabilities or you have a fear with no proof that your fear is real.
Disability
Disability – when talking about a person, “disability” means:
- A person has a physical or mental problem that means doing the things of everyday life, called a “Major Life Activity” is really hard and maybe that person even can’t do those everyday things at all;
- There is proof that a person really does have that problem; or
- Other people think that person has a physical or mental problem.
Fundamental Alteration
Fundamental Alteration – This is when a change gets made that makes the things a group has to do too different to work anymore. This can mean services a group offers, buildings the group uses, the help a group gives, or the accommodations a group uses.
Major Life Activity
Major Life Activity – These are the things of everyday life that most people do. That can mean, caring for oneself, body movement to get things done, walking, seeing, hearing, eating, speaking, breathing, learning, and working. These are only some of the things people do in everyday life.
Mental Impairment
Mental Impairment – This means any problems a person might have with thinking through information. It can also mean any problems a person might have with feelings or understanding the world. This can be because they were born with a problem with thinking, feelings, or understanding or the problem happened later in the person’s life. The problem might be because of a sickness or because the person got hurt. They may even have hurt their brain. The problem may be with how a person learns new information.
Physical Impairment
Physical Impairment – This means any problems with the body a person might have. This may be that the person’s looks are different. This may also be a problem to one part of the person’s body or to a whole system of the body. Examples of these types of problems can be:
- with how signals travel through the body
- with muscles or bones.
- with body parts that get information from the world, like ears or eyes.
- with the parts of the body that make speech.
- with breathing
- with the heart system
- with the body parts that make babies
- with the body parts that turn food into energy the body uses
- with the body parts that get rid of waste from the body
- with the skin
- with the body parts that make the liquid in our bodies
- with the body parts that make the chemicals our bodies use to work properly.
Qualified Individual with a Disability
Qualified Individual with a Disability – A part of the ADA, called “Title II”, tells us how to understand these words. Qualified Individual with a Disability means a person who matches a list of reasons for why that person can expect an organization to accommodate that person’s disability. The person may only match a little bit of the list and not the whole thing. Then the person can take part in the programs, activities, or services that an organization has for most people. This could mean the organization has to change the rules the organization follows or the way the organization does its work. The organization may also make changes to the buildings or spaces used, the ways the organization shares information, or how the organization provides Auxiliary Aids or Services. The organization may also get rid of problems that block people from moving from one place to another.
Reasonable Accommodation
Reasonable Accommodation – A part of the ADA, called “Title II,” tells us how to understand these words. “Reasonable Accommodation” means those things we do to allow the people with disabilities on parole or probation to be a part of our work. We might change our rules or the way we do our work. We might also fix problems with our buildings, the way we share information, or how people move from one place we control to another. We might also change how we offer Auxiliary Aids and Services. We don’t have to provide accommodations that would be a Fundamental Alteration.
Undue Burden
Undue Burden – DCS has to follow the ADA. But DCS does not have to do something if it would be too hard or too expensive. The ADA has a list to help us understand if this is true for us. That list includes:
- What we are trying to do and how much that costs.
- How much money a DCS workplace has to use.
- How many people work in an office making changes.
- Whether we will use too much of our time or money making the change.
- Real safety rules we must follow to work safely and the things we do to stop people from breaking the law against us.
- How much the change might stop a DCS workplace from working well.
- Whether a DCS office is too far away to make a change.
- How money is shared between a DCS office and the whole DCS organization.
- How much money the whole DCS organization has.
- How many people work for all of DCS.
- How many workspaces we have, what kind they are, and where they are.
- What type of work DCS does, how our work is set up, what our work looks like and what DCS staff has to do while working.