Rehabilitation Act of 1973 - Section 504

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 states that any agency or institution that receives Federal funding must ensure that their jobs and services are accessible to all persons, regardless of disability. With the increasing distribution of Federal money to state and local agencies, this law applies to most government agencies at all levels.

For information on the effect of the Section 504 on housing, visit the Department of Housing and Urban Development

To learn more about how Section 504 impacts educational institutions, visit University of North Dakota's Section 504 page.

Want to know what your organization must do to be in compliance with Section 504? Find out at the 504 Compliance Handbook.

The Disability Rights Section of the Department of Justice deals with questions regarding Section 504 and compliance.

February 2003 - NCD Releases 504 Analysis

March 2003 - Can people sue for monetary damages under Section 504? Here's a report on a case to answer that question.

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NCD Releases 504 Analysis

Editor: Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act requires that any agency or organization that receives federal money must ensure that its jobs and services are accessible to everyone, regardless of disability. Several federal agencies are responsible for enforcement. How good a job are they doing? Here's a report from the National Council on Disability (NCD).

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WASHINGTON -- The National Council on Disability (NCD) finds that five federal agencies (Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, Justice, Labor, and State) responsible for enforcement of disability rights provided by Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act have given the task low priority and minimal leadership, although some progress has been made. Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act is acknowledged as the first national civil rights law to view the exclusion and segregation of people with disabilities as discrimination. NCD's findings are contained in its report, Rehabilitating Section 504 (http://www.ncd.gov/newsroom/publications/section504.html).

NCD chairperson Lex Frieden said, "Section 504 is a powerful enfranchisement tool for people with disabilities if used with due diligence, but that has not been the case. Although a number of these issues are now being addressed by some of the agencies, more needs to be done." In its report, NCD found that:

* The Department of Justice, which has oversight responsibility to coordinate compliance with Section 504 across the agencies, provided insufficient leadership and failed in its Interagency Disability Coordinating Council (IDCC) coordination duties;

* The IDCC, that was set up to ensure coordination functions across federal agencies, never met; and

* The Department of State has never had a Section 504 federally assisted program. It has not allocated any resources to determine whether the recipients of its grant funds comply with any of the civil rights laws.

During the course of its study, NCD encountered a number of successful practices that should be reviewed by other federal agencies. For instance, the Department of Health and Human Services Web (HHS) site is exemplary and should be emulated in how it provides relevant Section 504 information in a user-friendly format. The HHS online material is rich in detail and includes helpful case studies and links to other relevant Web sites. Agencies should also review and consider including in their Web sites information similar to that provided by the Department of Education's (ED) technical assistance guidance to recipients and the Department of Labor's (DOL) list of reasonable accommodation information resources. In addition, ED has successfully expanded its Section 504 program resources and effectiveness in a number of innovative ways.

ED has demonstrated noteworthy and successful efforts to shorten the time it takes to conduct investigations. Quicker investigations and resolutions result in increased confidence in the investigation process, both by potential complainants and by recipients of funding.

NCD recommends that federal agencies in question re-evaluate in-house activities, to ensure the ability of people with disabilities to fully participate in their programs, policies, regulations, and practices. NCD also recommends that the Department of Justice revive the IDCC to facilitate its guidance and coordination functions across the various agencies.

"People with disabilities continue to look to, and must rely on, effective enforcement of Section 504 to be able to access important federal programs and services," said Frieden. "As recipients of federal funds better understand their responsibilities, they can conduct their programs in a way that maximizes full participation by people with disabilities."

NCD is an independent federal agency making recommendations to the President and Congress on disability policy.

For more information, contact Mark Quigley or Martin Gould at 202-272-2004. TTY: 202-272-2074.

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Section 504 Case Looms Large

March 2003

Editor: You know that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has been under attack for several years, and that opponents have succeeded in reducing or eliminating many of the bill's protections. Less famous than the ADA, but equally protective, is Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. It states that agencies or institutions that receive Federal funding must ensure that their jobs and services are accessible to all persons, regardless of disability. Like the ADA, Section 504 is too often ignored; also like the ADA, avenues to ensure compliance are under attack. Here are portions of a National Association of the Deaf (NAD) press release regarding a pending court case. For additional information, please contact Anita Farb at nadinfo@nad.org

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SILVER SPRING, MD -- The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) filed an amici curiae (friends of the court) brief with 17 other disability rights advocacy groups, arguing that victims of disability discriminations by states should be entitled to fully exercise their rights and remedies under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, including recovering monetary damages.

The brief, filed in the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, support plaintiffs-appellants Patricia Garrett and Milton Ash's brief supporting reversal of a federal district court's dismissal of their Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act claims "...against the Trustees of the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the Alabama Department of Youth Services, both defendants in this case."

"Monetary damages are a necessary remedy under Section 504 to ensure that states do not discriminate against their own employees and applicants for employment," said Marc Charmatz, NAD Staff Attorney. "If a state denies employment to a job applicant due to the applicant's disability, or refuses to accommodate an employee, the state has discriminated against the individual. Who wants to work for a state that discriminates? Monetary damages compensate individuals who have been victims of discrimination and may have no other form of relief."