SEALS PROGRAM ADVOCACY TIPS: DISABILITY AND LANGUAGE RIGHTS

By Ambika Panday, Greater Boston Legal Services, Equal Justice Fellow.

The partnership between the Welfare Law Unit at Greater Boston Legal Services and the Social Services Department at Massachusetts General Hospital continues to flourish as the SEALS program heads in to its fourth month.

Since September, the Welfare Law Unit has received and accepted approximately 8 referral requests that fit within the SEALS program objectives. In addition, advocates at Greater Boston Legal Services have provided referrals and brief advice on at least 14 cases that were ineligible for representation either because the clients live in areas not serviced by Greater Boston Legal Services, or because the clients’ legal issues fell outside the scope of the SEALS program.

In this month’s article, the SEALS program provides information on the identifying and overcoming the barriers that most often prevent welfare applicants and recipients from getting and keeping assistance— the lack of accommodations for individuals with disabilities and the difficulty in securing bilingual services for those with limited English proficiency.

For more information on the SEALS program, contact Ambika Panday

Accommodations for Disabilities
Applicants and recipients of welfare benefits are entitled to accommodations for their physical and cognitive disabilities under the Americans with Disabilities Act. This means that the Department of Transitional Assistance MUST:

• Modify program rules and practices when a rule or practice prevents someone from accessing the full range of benefits available because of a disability.
  • This means that DTA may need to take extra steps or give extra help for someone with a disability, even if they would not do the same for someone else without a disability.
• Ensure that the ways it runs its programs do not tend to screen out people with disabilities.
  • For example, a requirement that someone can only get services if they come to a DTA office risks screening out people who cannot get to the office because of a physical or mental disability.

Examples of Accommodations include:

• Alternative means of communication (i.e., not just computer generated notices). This can include using TTY and ASL interpreters.
• Not requiring someone to come into the DTA office and using home visits, fax, and/or mail instead, including for initial applications.
• Explanations of written notices
• Calls to explain or remind someone of a requirement or deadline
• Extra time to provide paperwork
• Assistance completing paperwork
• Ongoing help getting verifications
• Having copies of notices also go to a helper IF the client chooses

How to Request an Accommodation

1. Tell your worker you are having trouble with a rule because of a disability and need an accommodation. You can do this at any time. If you can, it is safest to make this request in writing and save a copy in case DTA later says they don’t have any record of this request.
2. The worker is supposed to help you fill out a form, called an ADA-1, making the request in writing and explaining why you need it. (You can also have a helper or advocate complete this step with you.)
3. An Accommodation Team in each DTA office is in charge of making decisions about each request.
4. If you don’t get the full accommodation you think you need, or don’t get an answer, you can ask for DTA’s Central Office Accommodation Appeal Committee to review the request. You can also ask for a fair hearing.
   Contact Legal Services at any stage for help with these issues.

Language Barriers
All applicants and recipients with “limited English proficiency” have the right to some bilingual services under federal civil rights laws and Food Stamp law. If a person cannot fully understand spoken English or fully communicate in English, she likely needs either a bilingual worker to handle her welfare case or an interpreter.

It is up to the applicant/recipient to decide whether she needs an interpreter when communicating with her welfare case worker on the phone or in person. DTA must provide one if requested, regardless of an individual’s language capabilities.
Included below are answers to common questions related to bilingual services for welfare applicants and recipients in Massachusetts.

What is DTA supposed to do if they don’t have a bilingual worker fluent in the correct language to assign to the client?
DTA local offices are supposed to arrange to use interpreters to communicate with applicants and recipients with limited English proficiency. Some interpreters work for DTA and others can be hired as needed on a contract basis. If there is a need to communicate immediately when an interpreter is not available at the DTA office or a need to communicate by telephone, the local office is supposed to contact an interpreter by phone immediately. If needed for an in-office communication, the DTA worker should make a three-way call with the client to an interpreter. If the client is at home, the DTA worker would call the client with the interpreter hooked in for a three-way call as well.

What if the DTA worker says the client must bring her own interpreter?
You will need to speak to someone above the worker, such as a supervisor or office Assistant Director or Director. If none of them will promptly resolve the situation, you should be able to get results by calling DTA central office officials, such as the Equal Opportunity Director (Lorraine Woodson) at 617-348-8492 or the General Counsel (Thomas Noonan) in the Legal Division, 617-348-8520.

What if this continues to be a problem for the client?
Ask for help from your local legal services office. The client can also make a complaint with our Regional Office of Civil Rights of the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, J.F.K. Building, Room 1875, Boston, MA 02203, in a letter stating the client’s name, address, phone number, and the problem she had with DTA or on a “Discrimination Complaint” form, available on OCR’s website, www.dhhs.gov/ocr. Call OCR at (800) 368-1019 for more information.

-For legal assistance in the Boston area, contact Greater Boston Legal Services at (617) 371-1234 or (800) 323-3205.

11/07