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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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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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."
In Board of Trustees v. Garrett, 531 U.S. 356 (2001), the Supreme
Court of the United States held that states are immune from suit for
monetary damages under Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The Supreme Court did not decide the issue of whether states can be sued
for monetary damages under Section 504. Section 504 of the
Rehabilitation Act of 1973 prohibits discrimination based on disability
by recipients of federal funds. Generally, as a condition of receiving
federal funds, states agree to comply with Section 504. On remand of
this case, a federal district court held that private individuals cannot
file monetary damage claims under Section 504. The friend of the court
brief asks a federal appeals court to reverse this decision.
