Council Meeting
Held Tuesday, June
28, 2005
Ms. Delia L. Johnson, Co-Chair and Director, Office of Civil
Rights for International Broadcasting Bureau, opened the meeting with a few
remarks and then asked the attendees to give their name, agency, and
position. She thanked Bonita White,
Director, EEO Programs, DHHS, for sponsoring this meeting.
New Guidelines for Accessible Design
Jim Pecht,
Accessibility Specialist/Librarian at the U.S. Access Board, gave a presentation
on the updated accessibility guidelines for new or altered facilities covered
by the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Architectural Barriers Act
(ABA), which the Board issued on July 23, 2004. Currently, everyone is waiting
for the General Services Administration to adopt them in order that they can
become the enforceable standards for most federal agencies. Mr. Pecht indicated
that the expectation is that GSA would adopt the standards this summer. For
additional information about the guidelines, go to http://www.access-board.gov/news/ada-aba.htm.
The guidelines are
divided into ten chapters. Chapter 1 addresses the applicability of the
guidelines to federal facilities.
Chapter 2 deals with the scoping requirements (which elements and how
many need to be accessible; i.e., all restrooms). Chapter 3 through 10 cover
the technical requirements (what an element has to look like to be accessible;
i.e., specific requirements for an element).
There is a new
section in the guidelines that covers Federal leases. The ABA guidelines will
apply to renegotiated leases. Moreover, the goal of the ABA is to make all
federal facilities accessible to people with disabilities. If federal agencies
need to get an exception to an ABA requirement, they will have to consult the
standard setting agency that has authority over the facility. For most agencies this will be GSA.
Technical Chapter 5
deals with General Site & Building Elements, which cover parking. Under the
new guidelines, one of every six accessible spaces will have to be for van
parking.
For a copy of Mr.
Pecht’s PowerPoint demonstration, click on the ABA
Presentation 05 file. If you have specific questions concerning
the new guidelines, you may contact the Board's technical assistance line at 1
800 872-2253.
Michael Dole, from the Department of Veterans Affairs, gave a presentation on the SAS software that he has used to prepare the MD-715 report. He indicated that affirmative action programs in the federal sector all have three sets of responsibilities: 1) tables and statistics (which are the trigger mechanism to determine underrepresentation); 2) workforce analysis tools to find the barriers. (He stated that while MD-715 required federal agencies to have these tools, EEOC had not told anyone what these were); and, 3) targeting recruitment initiatives.
Jorge Ponce, the Council Co-Chair, stated that Mr. Dole had used in his presentation a term that had been vetoed by MD-715 and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission – underrepresentation. Mr. Dole referred to GAO report no. 05-195 (Equal Employment Opportunity – The Policy Framework in the Federal Workplace and the Roles of EEOC and OPM), issued in April 2005, and he quoted the following passage from pages 19-20, “The President has charged OPM, in conjunction with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), with assessing agencies’ performance in meeting the President’s Management Agenda (PMA) standards dealing with reducing underrepresentation and implementing processes to sustain workforce diversity.” He also directed Council members to look at page 23 of the GAO Report that lists the Human Capital Accountability and Assessment Framework, which OPM developed to guide agencies toward achieving the PMA. Underrepresentation is a key component of this Framework. To view the GAO report, go to http://www.gao.gov, and click on the Reports and Testimony hyperlink.
Brenda Manuel and Curtis Lewis indicated that their company, Curtis Lewis & Associates, had developed several modules for the upcoming No FEAR Act training. The first module was a live training (1/2 day) and its cost was approximately $4,500 for thirty participants. The second module consisted of a DVD of the first module training, at a cost of $104 per participant. The third module was a web-based training, which was expected to be released in August 2005. Ms. Manuel pointed out that her company also offered other EEO training, as well as leadership development and executive management courses.
To find out additional information about Curtis Lewis & Associates, go to http://www.curtislewisandassociates.com, call them at 202 737-3020, or e-mail them at lewlaw@curtislewisandassociates.com.
Ms. Alexander stated that she had offered Delia Johnson to present a course at future Council meetings every other month.
Ms. Johnson gave an update on her efforts to get the officers of this Association from becoming a separate organization, and, instead, operate as a subcommittee of the Council. She stated that she had scheduled two meetings with officers of this Title VI/IX Association, and they had ignored her requests. Last week, the members of Title VI/IX Association met and elected Harry Takai (Treasury Dept.) as President, Angelia Richardson (National Endowment for the Arts) as Vice-President, and Doug Gentile (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) as Recording Secretary.
Ms. Johnson pointed out that the Federal Times had published, in its June 27, 2005 edition, an Op-Ed piece that Mr. Ponce had written and that was entitled “How to Increase Hispanics’ Profile in the Federal Work Force.” To view Mr. Ponce’s article, go to the What’s New directory at http://www.fedcivilrights.org.