AHEAD in Texas is excited to offer a two part webinar this fall to all in the field of providing disability services. Participants can choose to participate in both dates or individual sessions for the same price. Prices, session information, and the registration form is below.
Pricing
- For 2022/2023 Members: $25.00
- For Members that attended the Spring 2022 AHEAD in Texas conference in San Antonio, the price of the webinar was included in the conference.
- For Non-Members: $50.00
Session Information
Resistance from All Sides: Managing the ADA Accommodation Process
- When: Tuesday, October 18 and Wednesday, October 19 starting at 2:00 pm CST each day. 90 minute program each day
- Who: Presented by Diego Demaya, General Adviser and Educator from Southwest ADA Center
- Summary: OCR hardly addresses institutional push-back against DSS coordinators expecting them to automatically decline costly accommodations, side with faculty rejecting appropriate accommodations without question, and refrain from debating with upper-level administrators. How do we address the stress of reduced DSS funding due to discriminatory administrative practices? What is the effect of remaining silent regarding unwritten policies that undermine access for students with disabilities? In this two-part workshop we will review legal developments, the dreaded post-pandemic virtual class attendance accommodation request, examine the misguided idea that accommodation is not required in the ADA or Section 504, and review how to legally decline requests based on inappropriateness, undue burden, and fundamental alteration. We will entertain questions from the audience and review recommended practices to help insulate the DSS from institutional and/or legal blame. This will be an interactive workshop where the audience is expected to engage in a frank discussion without fear of reprisal or embarrassment for asking a politically incorrect question or dealing with a difficult student or upper level administrator.
Learning Outcomes
- Identify and acknowledge the problem of resistance and hostility against DSS from all sides with illustrations.
- Evaluate how institutional hostility aimed at the DSS coordinator by administrators and faculty undermines the compliance role of DSS. Illustrate how a student may suffer discrimination when administrators use methods of administration that have a discriminatory impact.
- Review legal developments from OCR and case law and examine illustrations and resolutions.
- Review effective strategies and tools DSS people should employ to
- clarify roles and responsibilities of DSS, faculty, and administration involved in ADA accommodation process.
- effectively address adversarial or conflicting views on compliance obligation-including responding to difficult students and an ignorant or misguided legal department.
- effectively encourage and obtain constructive participation from a hostile administrator or faculty member.
- shifting ultimate responsibility from DSS over to a director or faculty member when amicable and effective resolution is not possible.
The aim of this seminar is to open a frank forum where participants can interactively voice issues and observations regarding institutional hostility toward the DSS office while hopefully learning to rationally apply the law and communicate resolutions effectively. The target audience is DSS staff working directly with students while facing faculty and administrators hostile to the ADA accommodation process. Upper level DSS administrators or faculty not directly involved in the accommodation process may participate only if they accept constructive criticism with an open mind and agree not to retaliate in any way against DSS staff for attending the workshop.
The overall mission is to help DSS be up to date on latest enforcement developments and pursue constructive and effective problem resolution with students, administrators, and faculty to foster amicable and inclusive cooperation among stakeholders.
Speaker Bio
Diego Demaya holds a BA in Humanities from University of Houston-Downtown and a Juris Doctorate from City University of New York School of Law. He is senior General Adviser and Educator for the Southwest ADA Center (SWADA) – affiliate of the national ADA network covering Region VI–NM, TX, OK, AR, LA. SWADA is an independently federally funded division of ILRU and Memorial Herman Healthcare System. He provides advisory and technical guidance on the Americans with Disabilities Act and related law focusing on employment, health care, education, and closely follows legal trends in other areas–Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning technology, Biometrics, Privacy law, and legislation. He teams with individuals and organizations to resolve issues and develop equitable compliance policy for various industries—post-secondary education, manufacturing, transportation, hospitality, law enforcement, health care and other sectors. He trains private and public entities pursuant to Federal enforcement actions. Diego studies law in service of human needs and works to reach equitable solutions of complex issues to increase productivity and enterprise success. He has been successful in mitigating liability by promoting awareness of human needs and rational compliance with civil rights laws. Diego is an “Audioholic” and consultant on home audio systems for the wonderful enjoyment of music.
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Certificates of Attendance
We are happy to provide a certificate of attendance for participants to use as they wish. However, because most CEU bodies require that an evaluation be completed for CEUs to be awarded, we ask that you complete the short evaluation below before requesting a certificate of attendance. The evaluation will be available at the completion of the webinar series.