Jennie Bourgeois

WASHINGTON – The Justice Department today announced a comprehensive settlement agreement under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) with HRB Tax Group Inc., H&R Block Tax Services LLC and HRB Advance LLC (H&R Block) to ensure effective communication with individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing in the provision of income tax preparation services and courses at more than 11,000 owned and franchised offices nationwide.

The settlement agreement, which resolves an ADA complaint filed by an individual who is deaf, requires, among other things, that H&R Block furnish appropriate auxiliary aids and services, including sign language interpreter services, when necessary to afford a person who is deaf or hard of hearing equal access to the goods, services and accommodations made available to others.

“By signing this agreement, H&R Block has affirmed its commitment to providing effective communication with people who are deaf and hard of hearing not only at their tax preparation offices in San Antonio, where the complaint originated, but at their locations across the country,” said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “The agreement will ensure that individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing have equal access to tax preparation services at more than 11,000 offices nationwide.”

The agreement requires that H&R Block:

* Provide auxiliary aids and services, including qualified sign language interpreters, to persons who are deaf or hard of hearing when necessary to ensure effective communication of its tax preparation services, programs and courses;

* Adopt and enforce a policy on effective communication with individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing for all H&R Block offices nationwide, post the policy on its websites and in its employee manuals, and distribute the policy to current and new employees and contractors;

* Establish and maintain a list of sign language interpreter providers;

* Post and maintain in a conspicuous location in all reception areas of H&R Block offices a notice stating that individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing have a right under the ADA to request a sign language or oral interpreter or other form of auxiliary aid or service if needed;

* Provide staff training on the ADA and H&R Block’s obligations to provide effective communication to individuals with disabilities;

* Monitor franchisees’ compliance with this requirement consistent with monitoring of compliance with the franchise agreements and other requirements of federal, state or local laws; and

* Pay $5,000 damages to the individual who filed an ADA complaint and a $20,000 civil penalty.

The ADA prohibits discrimination against customers with disabilities by businesses that serve the public. Among other things, the ADA requires tax preparation services, accountants, lawyers, doctors and other businesses to provide equal access to customers who are deaf or hard of hearing. When services such as tax preparation involve important, lengthy or complex oral communications with customers, businesses are generally required to provide qualified sign language interpreters and other auxiliary aids, free of charge, to individuals who are deaf, are hard of hearing or have speech disabilities. Other auxiliary aids may include the use of relay services for telephone communication, exchanging notes for brief and uncomplicated communications, providing assistive listening systems and receivers in classes for attendees who are hard of hearing, and providing captioned videos. The appropriate auxiliary aid to be provided depends on a variety of factors including the nature, length and importance of the communication; the communication skills and knowledge of the individual who is deaf or hard of hearing; and the individual’s stated need for a particular type of auxiliary aid.

Auxiliary aids must also be provided for individuals who are blind or have low vision, such as materials in Braille, large print or accessible electronic formats such as email or HTML, qualified readers and assistance in filling out forms.

Those interested in finding out more about this agreement or businesses’ effective communication obligations under the ADA may call the Justice Department’s toll-free ADA Information Line at 800-514-0301 or 800-514-0383 (TDD), or access its ADA website at www.ada.gov > . ADA complaints may be filed by email to ada.complaint@usdoj.gov .

The White House * 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW * Washington DC 20500 * 202-456-1111

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Hidden Cameras Reveal Bystanders’ Reactions When Discrimination Is Staged

Two young women walk into a coffee shop to apply for a job in the kitchen when something strange happens: the manager seems oddly reluctant to let them fill out an application. Then, in full view of customers, out it comes: the real reason the manager isn’t interested in hiring them? They are deaf.

It’s a shocking violation of the law, or it would be if this weren’t an episode of “What Would You Do?” The manager and the deaf job applicants are actors. Of course the customers don’t know that. How will they respond to a display of the kind of discrimination this country outlawed two decades ago?

This special WWYD was developed with the help of students and administrators at the Rochester Institute of Technology’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf, in Rochester, N.Y. It is the world’s first and largest technical college for deaf and hard-of-hearing students.

In an interview at the college, student Brenna DeBartolo said, “I have a lot of respect for people who aren’t deaf, for people who are hearing. At the same time, it would be nice for them to think about, ‘What is it like to be a deaf person?’ I mean, how would they like to go into a place and want to apply for a job and then be discriminated against just because of who you are?”

Although they’re still in college, many NTID students already have an idea of the difficulties they may face in the workplace. Maya Ariel told WWYD that when she applied for part-time jobs in the past, “one or two places never called me back.”

“From what I found out, they didn’t call me back because I was deaf,” she said, speaking thorough a sign language interpreter.

Hannah Worek’s parents are deaf. “My dad right now, he doesn’t have a job,” Worek said. “He got laid off. He’s been looking for jobs and it’s hard because you have to get an interpreter every time you do an interview.”

The new president of NTID, Gerry Buckley, explains how employers are supposed to treat a deaf or hard-of-hearing job applicant (or any disabled applicant, for that matter).

“What should happen is that that deaf or hard-of-hearing person has an equal opportunity to apply for the job, just like any person. The supervisor or the employer … interviews them with the same kind of questions and scrutiny that they interview anyone,” he said.

The employer should “really look very specifically at their skills, related to being able to perform the work functions,” Buckley said. “Questions related to accommodations or costs associated with accommodations should be set aside (to) focus on whether the person has the skills to do the job.”

NTID is proud of its nearly 90 percent job placement record for graduates. It’s hard enough finding and keeping a job in today’s economy, but for those with a disability it is especially difficult. In January, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced that allegations of workplace discrimination hit an all-time high in 2010. The biggest increase came in claims from workers who say they were discriminated against because of a disability.

It’s a problem many thought had become history more than 20 years ago when President George H. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act into law in 1990. The ADA says if a worker with a disability is qualified to perform the essential functions or duties of a job, even if they require reasonable accommodation, they are protected from job discrimination.

Discrimination against the disabled is usually hidden. It may happen behind closed office doors, or even in the mind of the employer who doesn’t want to follow the law. But two decades after the passage of the ADA, we wondered how regular people would respond if they could see the law flouted right in front of them. So with the owner’s permission, we outfitted SmartWorld Coffee in Morristown, N.J. with hidden cameras and waited for the morning rush.

As the WWYD scenario got underway, NTID students Hannah Worek and Maya Ariel played our job applicants. Another WWYD actor played the discriminating manager of a coffee shop in need of a kitchen worker. When the women walked into the shop and asked for an application, the manager blatantly announced he wasn’t hiring any deaf people.

“I’m not going to hire a deaf person. I’m just letting you know. So we’ll save you some time. … I mean you’re deaf, it’s going to be really hard for you to work here,” he said.

Many customers looking on told us afterwards they were shocked. Some said they planned to raise the issue later with the store owner. As the scene repeated again and again throughout the day, some customers stared, rolled their eyes, or grimaced, but few openly objected to the outright discrimination they witnessed.

One striking exception was customer Gerald Tourgee. When he saw what was happening, he turned to the manager and said, “Excuse me, are you aware of the Equal Employment Opportunity laws? You just made a blanket statement about not hiring a deaf person. You’ve made it very clear you’re not hiring a deaf person. … If she takes the job and she’s not able to fulfill the duties, that’s a different situation. But not to hire her because she’s deaf, that’s absolutely discriminatory!”

After a long day of too many customers looking the other way, the outburst was welcomed by our actors. But other responses were less kind-hearted and some might shock you. Watch Friday night to see the surprising reactions of some people who are supposed to be employment experts: human resource workers and job recruiters.

For More Information

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission enforces federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. Click here to find more details about the Americans with Disabilities Act from the EEOC.

Video: (In case you miss on television)

http://www.hulu.com/watch/213121/what-would-you-do-deaf-to-job-discrimination

Article:

http://abcnews.go.com/WhatWouldYouDo/witnessed-discrimination-deaf-job-applicants/story?id=12822039

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