[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 226 (Friday, November 22, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 70088-70090]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-28036]
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SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION
[Docket No. SSA-2013-0042]
Agency Proposed Business Process Vision Under the Rehabilitation
Act of 1973
AGENCY: Social Security Administration (SSA).
ACTION: Notice of availability of proposed business process vision
following self-evaluation under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act
of 1973 and request for comments.
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SUMMARY: On November 5, 2010, we published a Federal Register notice
requesting comments regarding our self-evaluation under Section 504 of
the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. We requested the public's ideas and
suggestions on how we could best perform the self-evaluation. We
received a limited number of comments from advocacy groups and
individuals.
On August 2, 2011, we published a second Federal Register notice
announcing the two public forums we held in Falls Church, Virginia,
where the public could provide us with comments in person or via
telephone. The notice also requested written comments from those who
preferred to communicate with us in writing.
On October 24, 2011, we published a third Federal Register notice
to extend the deadline to provide written comments.
This Federal Register notice announces the modifications we propose
to make to our business process based on our self-evaluation. A
description of our business process vision under Section 504 of the
Rehabilitation Act of 1973 is now available at www.socialsecurity.gov/accessibility/section504. Our business process vision outlines the
actions we are currently taking to implement many of the self-
evaluation key findings and recommendations. Specifically, we are
developing additional policies in this area to provide clear guidance
to all SSA components. We developed and are continuing to develop
electronic systems to capture information about the accommodations
people tell us they need, and we trained and continue to train our
employees about Section 504 and its requirements. Finally, we
established a new organization, the Center for Section 504 Compliance,
to oversee all of these efforts and manage the business process.
DATES: To ensure that your comments are considered, we must receive
them no later than December 23, 2013.
ADDRESSES: You may submit written comments by any one of three
methods--Internet, fax or mail. Do not submit the same comments
multiple times, or by more than one method. Regardless of which method
you choose, please state that your comments refer to Docket No. SSA-
2013-0042, so that we may associate your comments with the correct
activity.
Caution: You should be careful to include in your comments only
information you wish to make publicly available. We strongly urge you
not to include in your comments any personal information, such as
Social Security numbers or medical information.
Internet: We strongly recommend this method for submitting
your comments. Visit the Federal eRulemaking portal at http://www.regulations.gov. Use the Search function of the Web page to find
docket number SSA-2013-0042, and then submit your comment. Once you
submit your comment, the system will issue you a tracking number to
confirm your submission. You will not be able to view your comment
immediately as we must manually post each comment. It may take up to a
week for your comment to be viewable.
[[Page 70089]]
Fax: Fax comments to (410) 966-2830.
Mail: Mail your comments to the Office of Regulations and
Reports Clearance, Social Security Administration, 3100 West High Rise
Building, 6401 Security Boulevard, Baltimore, Maryland 21235-6401.
Comments are available for public viewing on the Federal
eRulemaking portal at http://www.regulations.gov, or in person, during
regular business hours, by arranging with the contact person identified
below.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Benita A. Dallas, Office of Civil
Rights and Equal Opportunity, Center for Section 504 Compliance, Social
Security Administration, 6401 Security Boulevard, Baltimore, Maryland
21235-6401, 410-966-4590. For information on eligibility or filing for
benefits, call our national toll-free number, 1-800-772-1213 or TTY 1-
800-325-0778, or visit our Internet site, Social Security Online, at
http://www.socialsecurity.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 prohibits
discrimination against individuals with disabilities and requires
Federal agencies and organizations that receive Federal financial
assistance to provide meaningful access to their programs and
activities to individuals with disabilities. In Fiscal Year 2012, SSA
paid over 61 million Social Security beneficiaries and Supplemental
Insurance Income recipients a combined total of about $810 billion;
completed more than 56 million transactions on our National 800 Number;
assisted 45 million visitors; received nearly 5 million retirement,
survivor, and Medicare applications; received about 3.2 million initial
disability claims, and conducted 672,352 hearings.\1\
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\1\ SSA's FY 2012 Performance and Accountability Report.
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Sometimes disabled individuals will ask us to provide them with
auxiliary aids to communicate or to modify the way we make our services
available so that they can have meaningful access to SSA's programs and
activities. We refer to these aids and modifications as ``reasonable
accommodations.'' Currently, we do not have a streamlined process for
providing reasonable accommodations to disabled members of the public,
and we have a limited ability to capture, store, and retrieve
information on the accommodation a disabled individual needs for
meaningful access to our services. We are developing an agency-wide
process that will allow us to ensure that our programs, services, and
activities are accessible to all of the individuals we serve. Our new
business process vision includes issuing policy guidance, providing
training to our employees, establishing processes for providing
accommodations that are effective, and developing electronic systems
that will make it possible for us to capture, review, track, and update
requests.
Our business process vision outlines the procedures we will use to
receive and process accommodation requests from individuals with
disabilities. We plan to identify ``standard accommodations'' that we
are able to provide immediately when an individual with a disability
requests them, and we plan to develop a process by which we will review
and decide requests for ``non-standard accommodations.''
A ``standard accommodation'' is something we will be able to
approve at the local level whenever an individual with a disability
requests it. A standard accommodation can be an auxiliary aid, or it
can be a service we provide to make our programs accessible to a
customer who has a certain type of disability, such as a modification
of our ordinary interview process. Standard accommodations will not
require special handling or approval by a manager. When a disabled
individual tells us that he or she needs a standard accommodation, we
will document the request and we will retain it in an electronic system
to ensure that, if the customer contacts or visits us again, we will
know that he or she previously requested this accommodation and may
need it again. An example of a ``standard accommodation'' is the UbiDuo
communication device, which enables SSA Field Office employees to
interact directly and immediately with customers who are deaf or hard
of hearing.
When a disabled individual needs an accommodation to have effective
communication with us, he or she may request his or her preferred
auxiliary aid if it is not one of our ``standard accommodations;'' this
is an example of what we mean when we refer to a ``non-standard
accommodation.'' We will give primary consideration to the individual's
request, unless another effective means of communicating exists.
However, we are not required to provide auxiliary aids that would
require us to make a fundamental alteration in the nature of an agency
program or activity or that would result in an undue financial or
administrative burden.
When a disabled individual is unable to access or use an agency
program or activity, the individual may request an accommodation he or
she believes will provide meaningful access. For the most part,
requests for program modifications are ``non-standard accommodations.''
Non-standard accommodation requests are necessarily individualized
and will require consideration by a centralized component within SSA to
ensure consistent responses. We have, therefore, created a Center for
Section 504 Compliance (Center), which will review and process requests
for non-standard accommodations. Previously, there was not a single
component responsible for overseeing the strategic and tactical aspects
of implementing SSA's Section 504 compliance. We believe our new
process will meet the changing needs of the American public we serve by
providing a central point of contact for reasonable accommodation
requests.
Request for Comments
As we implement our business process, we are asking for your input
on how we can continue to provide meaningful access to our programs and
services. After reviewing the business process we ask that, in
preparing comments, you address questions such as:
1. Are there additional standard reasonable accommodations we
should consider offering individuals who:
Are blind or visually impaired;
are deaf or hard of hearing;
have cognitive or learning issues;
have psychological or emotional issues;
have mobility or physical concerns; or
have other types of disabilities?
2. How can we best provide an opportunity for persons with
disabilities, their family members, and those who work with, or
advocate for, persons with disabilities, to tell us that they need an
accommodation to have meaningful access? How should we interact with
individuals who tell us they need an accommodation? What kind of
information should we request? How should we notify individuals of our
approval or denial of their request(s)?
3. What are some of the methods we should consider for getting
feedback about how the process is working?
Please see the information under ADDRESSES earlier in this document
for methods to give us your comments. We will not respond to your
comments, but we will consider them as we review our
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policies and instructions to determine if we should revise or update
them.
Dated: November 15, 2013.
Carolyn W. Colvin,
Acting Commissioner of Social Security.
[FR Doc. 2013-28036 Filed 11-21-13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4191-02-P