US Attorney provides Speaker at ADA Workshop

United States Attorney Beth Drake stated today that the United States Attorney’s Office continued its firm commitment to upholding the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The U.S. Attorney’s Office provided the presenter on an ADA Workshop for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community. The event was sponsored by the South Carolina Association of the Deaf, Inc. (SCAD) and the South Carolina Registry for Interpreters for the Deaf (SCRID). SCAD is the statewide non-profit organization that focuses on promoting equal treatment toward deaf and hard of hearing citizens in education, employment, legislation, healthcare, and other fields pertaining to the Deaf and Hard of Hearing citizens of South Carolina. SCRID provides local forums and an organizational structure for the continued growth and development of the profession of signed language interpretation. Lead organizers for the event included Ms. Anita M. Steichen-McDaniel, SCAD’s Executive Director, and Ms. Susie Spainhour, SCRID President. This event was held at the University Center of Greenville on Saturday, Jan. 27, 2018. AUSA Rob Sneed provided an overview of federal disability laws and focused on those aspects of the ADA of great interest to members of the deaf and hard of hearing community. The ADA requires that covered entities (State and local governments; businesses and nonprofit organizations that serve the public) communicate effectively with people who have communication disabilities. The goal is to ensure that communication with people with these disabilities is equally effective as communication with people without disabilities. According to U.S. Attorney Beth Drake, community outreach efforts such as this continue the U.S. Attorney’s and DOJ’s long standing commitment to Project Civic Access, which is a wide-ranging effort to ensure that counties, cities, towns, and villages comply with the ADA by eliminating physical and communication barriers that prevent people with disabilities from participating fully in community life. The training also supports her office’s ongoing support of the DOJ’s Barrier-Free Health Care Initiative, which is an initiative that will include effective communication for people who are deaf or have hearing loss, physical access to medical care for people with mobility disabilities, and equal access to treatment for people who have HIV/AIDS. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of South Carolina enforces federal civil rights laws, including the Fair Housing Act, Equal Credit Opportunity Act, Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, Americans with Disabilities Act, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act. Civil remedies under these statutes include monetary penalties, injunctions, civil judgments and more. To learn more about the ADA and other laws protecting the rights of people with disabilities, log on to www.ada.gov/ta-pubs-pg2.htm or call the Justice Department’s toll-free ADA Information Line at 800-514-0301 or 800-514-0383 (TDD). The U.S. Attorney’s Office Civil Rights Program webpages are located at https://www.justice.gov/usao-sc/civil-rights.