Three Months, October 25 2003

GRIEVANCE PROCEDURE

23. Within three months of the effective date of this Agreement, the County will adopt the attached ADA Grievance Procedure (Attachment B), distribute it to all agency heads, and post copies of it in conspicuous locations in each of its public buildings. It will refresh the posted copies, and update the contact information contained on it, as necessary, for the life of the Agreement. The County will also provide copies to any person upon request.

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GENERAL EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION PROVISIONS

24. Within three months of the effective date of this Agreement, the County will identify sources of qualified sign language and oral interpreters, real-time transcription services, and vendors that can put documents in Braille, and will implement and report to the Department its written procedures, with time frames, for fulfilling requests from the public for interpreters, real-time transcription services, and documents in alternate formats (Braille, large print, cassette tapes, etc.).

25. The County has no central TTY telephone number. Within three months of the effective date of this Agreement, the County will take steps to ensure that all appropriate employees are trained and practiced in using the State of Tennessee Relay Service to make calls to and receive calls from persons who use TTY�s.

9-1-1

26. Within three months of the effective date of this Agreement, the County will develop procedures for answering 9-1-1 calls that include training all call takers to use a TTY to take 9-1-1 calls, to recognize a "silent" open line as a potential TTY call and respond by TTY, and to ensure that TTY calls are answered as quickly as other calls.

27. Within three months of the effective date of this Agreement and continually thereafter, the County will monitor its incoming 9-1-1 TTY calls and take appropriate steps to ensure they are answered as quickly and accurately as other calls.

28. The County will incorporate correct TTY call-taking procedures into 9-1-1 call takers� performance evaluations and will amend its personnel policies to include written disciplinary procedures for call takers who fail to perform TTY call-taking consistent with the training and procedures. The County will implement and report to the Department its evaluation and procedures within three months of the effective date of this Agreement.

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LAW ENFORCEMENT AND EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

29. Within three months of the effective date of this Agreement, the County will adapt for its own use and implement the Loudon County Sheriff�s Department Policy Statement on Effective Communication with People Who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing [Attachment C] and distribute to all Sheriff�s Department officers the Guide for Law Enforcement Officers When in Contact with People Who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing [Attachment D].

30. Within three months of the effective date of this Agreement, the County will contract with one or more local qualified oral/sign language interpreter agencies to ensure that the interpreting services will be available on a priority basis for all law enforcement functions, twenty-four hours per day, seven days a week, or make other appropriate arrangements (such as contracting directly with or hiring qualified interpreters).

31. Within three months of the effective date of this Agreement, the County will ensure that each Sheriff�s station or substation and each jail facility and juvenile facility is equipped with a working TTY to enable persons who are deaf, hard of hearing, or who have speech impairments to make outgoing telephone calls to the same extent that similarly-situated non-disabled persons are allowed to make outgoing calls.

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EMPLOYMENT

32. As discussed above, the County has already adopted many employment policies to comply with the regulations of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission implementing title I of the ADA, 29 C.F.R. Part 1630. Within three months of the effective date of this Agreement, those policies will be amended to provide that the County:

a. will not ask a job applicant about the existence, nature, or severity of a disability. Applicants may be asked about their ability to perform specific job functions. Medical examinations or inquiries may be made, but only after a conditional offer of employment is made and only if required of all applicants for the position.

b. will make an individualized assessment of whether a qualified individual with a disability meets selection criteria for employment decisions. To the extent the County�s selection criteria have the effect of disqualifying an individual because of disability, those criteria will be job-related and consistent with business necessity.

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Voting

39. Within three months of the effective date of this Agreement, the County will provide opportunities for same-day balloting for voters with disabilities whose assigned polling place does not have accessible parking, exterior route, entrance, and interior route to the voting area. The method for providing these opportunities may include allowing the individual to vote at another nearby location that is accessible, vote by an absentee ballot that is accepted if postmarked on the day of the election (or picked up by election officials at the home of the voter on the same day as the election), provide curbside voting at the inaccessible polling place, or any other method that ensures that disabled voters have the same degree of information available to them when casting their ballots as others.

43. Starting three months from the effective date of this Agreement, when setting up its voting equipment, the County will ensure that the equipment�s accessibility to persons with disabilities is maximized, such as setting up table-top equipment on accessible tables and within the reach ranges required by the Standards, as shown in Attachment E.

61. The Department reviewed the elements of North Middle School that are used by the voting public: the parking serving the voting area, the route from the parking area to the area used for voting, and the area used for voting. This facility, located at 421 Hickory Creek Road, Lenoir City, TN, was first built in 1978 and altered in 2002. The County will take appropriate steps, including seeking pre-clearance from the Voting Rights Section of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, if necessary, to relocate the voting site to the new North Intermediate School, which has an accessible route and parking. The County will submit pictures and other supporting documentation within three months of the effective date of the Agreement to demonstrate that the North Intermediate School is accessible.

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b. Within 3 months of the effective date of this Agreement, the County will implement and report to the Department its written procedures that ensure that it regularly solicits and incorporates input from persons with a variety of disabilities and disability advocates regarding all phases of its Emergency Operations Plan.

d. Within 3 months of the effective date of this Agreement, the County will implement and report to the Department its written procedures that ensure that if its emergency warning systems use sirens or other audible alerts, it will also provide ways to inform persons with hearing impairments of an impending disaster. The use of auto-dialed TTY messages to pre-registered individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing, text messaging, e-mails, open-captioning on local TV stations and other innovative uses of technology may be incorporated into such procedures, as well as lower-tech options such as dispatching qualified sign language interpreters to assist with emergency TV broadcasts.

e. Within 3 months of the effective date of this Agreement, the County will implement and report to the Department its written procedures that ensure that at least one emergency shelter has a back-up generator and a way to keep medications refrigerated (such as a refrigerator or a cooler with ice). Such shelter(s) will be made available to persons whose disabilities require access to electricity and refrigeration, for example, for using life-sustaining medical devices, providing power to motorized wheelchairs, and preserving certain medications, such as insulin, that require refrigeration. The written procedures will include a plan for notifying persons of the location of such shelter(s).

f. Within 3 months of the effective date of this Agreement, the County will implement and report to the Department its written procedures that ensure that persons who use service animals are not separated from their service animals when sheltering during an emergency, even if pets are normally prohibited in shelters. The procedures will not unnecessarily segregate persons who use service animals from others but may take into account the potential presence of persons with disabilities who should not be in contact with certain types of animals, such as those with asthma, severe allergies, or certain phobic reactions.

h. Within 3 months of the effective date of this Agreement and until all emergency shelters have accessible parking, exterior routes, entrances, interior routes to the shelter area, and toilet rooms serving the shelter area, the County will identify and widely publicize to the public and to disability rights groups the most accessible emergency shelters.

i. Within 3 months of the effective date of this Agreement, the County will implement and report to the Department its written procedures that ensure that it has identified temporary accessible housing (such as accessible hotel rooms within the community or in nearby communities) that could be used if people with disabilities cannot immediately return home after a disaster if, for instance, necessary accessible features such as ramps or electrical systems have been compromised. If the County does not provide temporary housing for non-disabled residents, it does not have to provide temporary housing for persons with disabilities, but its plan should recognize that persons with disabilities may need assistance identifying accessible temporary housing. If the County does provide temporary emergency housing, its plan should take into account that persons with disabilities may need temporary housing for longer periods than others if necessary accessible features of their homes have been compromised.

j. Within 3 months of the effective date of this Agreement, the County will implement and report to the Department its written procedures that ensure that during clean-up operations, such as the removal of debris after a hurricane or tornado, people with disabilities know how to inform the government of areas of significant concern (for instance, city workers piling debris on sidewalks, blocking access for persons who use wheelchairs).

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46. Within three months of the effective date of this Agreement, the County will implement and report to the Department its written process for soliciting and receiving input from persons with disabilities regarding the accessibility of its sidewalks, including, for example, requests to add curb cuts at particular locations.

47. Within three months of the effective date of this Agreement, the County will identify and report to the Department all County-owned streets, roads, and highways, if any, that have been constructed or altered since January 26, 1992, that have curbs or other barriers to entry from all intersecting street-level pedestrian walkways. Paving, repaving, or resurfacing a street, road, or highway is considered an alteration for the purposes of this Agreement. Within three years of the effective date of this Agreement, the County will provide curb ramps or other sloped areas complying with the Standards or UFAS at all such intersections identified under this paragraph.

49. Within three months of the effective date of this Agreement, the County will identify and report to the Department all County-owned street-level pedestrian walkways, if any, that have been constructed or altered since January 26, 1992, that have curbs or other barriers to entry from all intersecting streets, roads, and highways. Paving, repaving, or resurfacing a walkway is considered an alteration for the purposes of this Agreement. Within three years of the effective date of this Agreement, the County will provide curb ramps or other sloped areas complying with the Standards or UFAS at all places where a street-level pedestrian walkway identified under this paragraph intersects with a street, road, or highway.

50. Beginning no later than three months of the effective date of this Agreement, the County will provide curb ramps or other sloped areas complying with the Standards or UFAS at all newly constructed or altered pedestrian walkways where they intersect a street, road, or highway.

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OTHER MEASURES TO ACHIEVE PROGRAM ACCESS

68. Within three months of the effective date of this Agreement, the County will implement and report to the Department its written plan regarding how County programs, activities, or services, including those of the County�s Economic Development Agency and the County Planning Commission, currently conducted at the Williamson House, located at 274 Blair Bend Road, which is not owned by the County, will be made accessible to persons with disabilities.

69. Within three months of the effective date of this Agreement, the County will implement and report to the Department its written plan regarding how County programs, services, and activities held in the Justice Center�s Grand Sessions Court will be made accessible to persons with disabilities.

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MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS

70. Except as otherwise specified in this Agreement, at three, six, nine, and 12 months after the effective date of this Agreement, and annually thereafter until the termination or expiration of the Agreement, the County will submit written reports to the Department summarizing the actions the County has taken pursuant to this Agreement. Reports will include detailed photographs showing measurements, architectural plans, work orders, notices published in the newspapers, copies of adopted policies, and proof of efforts to secure funding/assistance for structural renovations or equipment.

72. Within three months of the effective date of this Agreement, the County will develop or procure a two-hour training program on the requirements of the ADA and appropriate procedures for interacting with persons with disabilities. The County will use the ADA technical assistance materials developed by the Department and will consult with interested persons, including individuals with disabilities, in developing or procuring the ADA training program.

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