Office of Disability Rights Provides Testimony at the Agency Budget Oversight Hearing on March 31, 2009 - Testimonies

Testimony of
Derek K. Orr
Acting Director
Office of Disability Rights

Council of the District of Columbia
Committee on Government Operations and the Environment

Budget Oversight Hearing

March 31, 2009
10:00 AM

John A. Wilson Building
Room 500
1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20004

Good afternoon Councilmember Cheh and other distinguished members of the Committee. I am Derek Orr, Acting Director of the District of Columbia Office of Disability Rights. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today representing the Office of Disability Rights.

The mission of the Office of Disability Rights is to ensure that the programs, services, benefits, activities and facilities operated or funded by the District of Columbia are fully accessible to, and useable by, people with disabilities. ODR is responsible for ensuring that District government is in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) and other federal and District disability rights laws. To accomplish this mission, we provide training, technical assistance, policy recommendations, expertise and informal dispute resolution to District agencies and the disability community.

The Mayor’s FY 2010 budget for the Office of Disability Rights maintains the funding available for programs and services that ensure ODR continue to fulfill the mission of the Agency, while finding savings through internal efficiencies and utilizing existing District-wide funding when available.

The budget proposed for the Office of Disability Rights for Fiscal Year 2010 is $1,289,180. This is a reduction of 12.3%, or $180,786.

The proposed FY 2010 budget includes a $ 128,000 reduction, or 12.3% in personal services, and is comprised of the following: a reallocation of $60,000 from the personal services baseline to the nonpersonal services baseline to accurately reflect the cost of the authorized FTEs; and a savings of $68,000 for the elimination of 1 vacant FTE. In FY 2009, the Office of Disability Rights has a staffing structure comprised of 11 FTE’s. In FY 2010, the proposed staffing structure is comprised of 10 FTE’s, with the elimination of a full-time Sign Language Interpreter position – a position that was not part of the original ODR staffing design. This position has not been staffed in FY 2009 and the elimination of the position in FY 2010 will not present a reduction or modification to the Agencies ability to meet the accommodation needs of District consumers/residents in accessing District programs and services.

Three staff members are dedicated to our Agency Management program; and the remaining seven positions are dedicated to our Disability Rights program, which consists of training and technical assistance, evaluation and compliance, and investigations.

In Fiscal Year 2010, these 10 staff members will be responsible for achieving the following Performance Plan measures:

60% of text equivalents for non-text items will be made accessible on the dc.gov main website/portal;
80% of staff responsible for agency websites will be trained about accessible website components ;
80% of website videos, audios, documents, and forms will be made accessible to people with vision and hearing disabilities;
500 DC employees, contractors, and grantees will receive ADA training;
500 technical assistance calls/complaints/re-source requests will be handled within 30 days;
50 ADA Compliance Plans will be completed and be implemented;
We will continue to lead the Olmstead Community Integration planning process;
Improve physical access to the District-owned and leased facilities

AND

Provision of citywide sign language interpretation services and captioning for District Government Agencies.

The proposed FY 2010 budget includes a $ 52,000 reduction, or 12.4% in Nonpersonal Services and is comprised of the following:

a reallocation of $60,000 from the personal services baseline to the nonpersonal services baseline;
an increase of $6,000 for the Office of Contracts and Procurement assessment;
And a cost savings of $16,000 to align tuition, travel and office support budgets with utilization.

In addition, given the availability of funds within District agencies’ budgets and minimal requests for ODR assistance, the Reasonable Accommodation pilot program to provide financial assistance to agencies for reasonable accommodations for District employees will be suspended, at a cost savings of $102,000. This approach of a centralized reasonable accommodation program is not required by the ADA and compliance with the ADA can be accomplished by relying on the agencies to meet their own obligations from their own budgets. ODR will provide technical assistance to the agencies in deciding reasonable accommodation requests - preparing reasonable accommodation planning in collaboration with the employee and their agency management; identifying all potential funding streams and will help them find and get the best prices on equipment and services.

In Fiscal Year 2010, the Office of Disability Rights, is planning for the expansion and implementation of the following:

Expansion of the ODR Training Curricula to address Agency specific training requests, to include

the Fair Housing Act;
ADA Title II training (which mandates that Government programs, services and activities be accessible to people with disabilities) on specific Agency programs and populations, for example the DHS Shelter program;
Trainings on specific Disabilities such visual impairments; Mobility Impairments; and Deaf Culture.
ODR is anticipating the regulations for the ADA Amendments Act of 2008, expanding the definition of disability and reasonable accommodations. These legislative changes will be addressed by ODR by altering our present training designs; developing a new training curriculum specific to the Amendments Act; and modifying ODR’ written materials and our website to address changes in legislative language and process;
Enter into Memorandum of Understanding with District Government Agencies to enhance collaboration and partnerships, specifically the Office of Property Management to define a management plan and oversight process for the ADA Accessibility funding; the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs that will outline the provision of training and technical assistance to DCRA on Reasonable Accommodation to comply with the Fair Housing Act; and the Rehabilitation Services Administration that will outline interagency collaboration for the provision of Reasonable Accommodations for District Employees.
Lastly, make all necessary modifications to our programs and services to reflect the advancement of people with disabilities’ civil rights and liberties.

Thank you for providing me the opportunity to testify today. I would be pleased to respond to any questions or concerns you may have.