Handicap Services

For anyone with Disabilities or Hearing Impairment, visual aid and recording of  County Commission meetings are available upon request. If anyone needs qualified sign language interpreters, please contact Alison Palmer at 770-646-2002 one week prior to meeting date. Supporting documents are available prior to a meeting.

Under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (the ADA), no state or local government entity may discriminate on the basis of disability in its programs, services or activities. In addition to that general prohibition, state and local government entities must assure that all of their programs and services, when viewed in their entirety, are accessible. Put another way, every program must be accessible, although not every facility must be accessible.

A state or local government must provide a disabled individual with an equal opportunity to participate in programs, services and activities provided. This means, for example, that court proceedings and public meetings must be held in places that are accessible to people with mobility impairments. Auxiliary aids and services — such as sign language interpreters and TTY machines — must be provided to ensure effective communication. People with visual impairments must be provided materials and information in a format useable to them. Examples of facilities covered by these requirements include: courts, police departments, schools, universities, state parks, public housing authorities and social services agencies.

The ADA applies accessibility requirements to any programs, service or activity conducted by the city, county or state government agencies, regardless of how many employees they have. Also, if the government contracts with a private business, then that business must also comply with Title II of the ADA (and will also have Title II obligations). Title II applies to local governments whether they receive federal funds or not; however, it does not apply to directly to the federal government, which is covered instead by the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.