One of the Justice Department’s most innovative programs is the ADA Mediation Program through which complaints are referred to professional mediators who have been trained in the legal requirements of the ADA. This has proven to be an effective way to resolve ADA complaints at much less cost and in a shorter period of time than traditional investigations or litigation. From the program’s inception in 1994, more than 75% of the complaints mediated have been resolved successfully.

In Ohio, a person who uses a service animal to alert her to oncoming seizures was denied access to a medical center. The hospital, which had a written policy on service animals, agreed to educate its office staff about the policy, with particular focus on helping staff identify and work with people with non-apparent disabilities who use service animals.

Civil rights violations found at Arkansas developmental disability facility

The Justice Department announced the results of its investigation into conditions at Conway Human Development Center (Conway), in Conway, Arkansas, a facility that provides care for approximately 550 residents with developmental disabilities such as mental retardation, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and autism, ranging in age from 11 to 66. The Department found substantial civil rights violations in the care provided to the residents of Conway and transmitted its findings in a letter from R. Alexander Acosta, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, to Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. The letter concludes a 17-month investigation into the terms and conditions of residency at Conway. The investigation found evidence of egregiously deficient, and at times life- threatening, medical care, as well as deficient physical and nutritional management and therapy services. The text of the letter is available online at www.usdoj.gov/crt/split/findsettle.htm.

According to the findings letter, the investigation revealed that, over the three months prior to her death, one resident experienced more than eight separate episodes of significant bleeding at the site of her colostomy bag, sometimes in amounts sufficient to spill blood onto her legs and soak her clothing. Yet, according to the letter, Conway staff failed to address the bleeding.

The Department also found evidence that the facility’s neurological care was critically deficient. A majority of Conway residents suffer from seizure disorders, yet the manner of prescribing anti-convulsant medications at Conway may in some instances have actually worsened residents’ seizure disorders. Especially disturbing was Conway’s failure to develop an accountable system for investigating resident deaths, particularly in light of the facility’s identified deficiencies.

The investigation also identified inadequate special education services provided to school-aged residents in violation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Actual daily instruction time was extremely limited, in some cases lasting as little as six minutes, and the content of class instruction was not educational.

Lastly, the Department alleges that some Conway residents were not being treated in the most integrated setting appropriate to their individualized needs as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act. A number of residents have lived at Conway for most of their lives without the state ever making any meaningful attempt to determine whether they could function in a more appropriate setting. Other residents previously identified for community placement, in some cases decades ago, have never been transferred back into the community.

Since 2001, the Department of Justice has opened 43 similar investigations into nursing homes, mental health facilities, juvenile justice facilities, prisons, and residences for persons with developmental disabilities.

Topic Editor: Steven C. Schachter, M.D.
Last Reviewed:8/18/04