Hello and welcome to the Disability Law Lowdown ASL podcast.

My name is Lori Mallory and I am one of your hosts for the ASL podcasts. We’re so glad that you found us and we hope you enjoy the ASL series of podcasts.

Today’s podcast is about the Disability and Business Technical Assistance Centers. These are usually referred to as DBTACs. They are a network of ten Centers around the country that provide training, materials, and technical assistance on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and other related disability laws. We'll talk about each of these. Training, materials, and technical assistance.

First, we'll talk about training. The ADA Centers can provide training to all kinds of groups – businesses, advocacy groups, civic groups, non-profit organizations, professional groups, support groups, and government agencies. These trainings might last from one hour to several days, depending on the topic and the depth of training desired. These are pretty traditional kinds of training, but the DBTACs offer more high tech training opportunities, too.

They offer webcasts that are accessed on the computer, as well as teleconferences. These cover a variety of topics related to various disability laws and are presented by experts in the particular area of the law. There are podcasts, which are offered in English, Spanish, and, of course, ASL! Online courses are available to individuals who want to get more in depth knowledge about the ADA. They cover things like the basics of the ADA and how the ADA applies to state and local governments, welcoming people with disabilities into businesses, workplace and employment support, and federal court concepts. If you want training, you can call your ADA Center at 1.800.949.4232 V/TTY

Now we will discuss the different things the ADA Center can offer related to the ADA and related disability laws. The newest addition is The Disability Law Handbook, which is a 50-page booklet that provides basic information about the ADA and related disability laws. The book is available online for download at www.southwestADA.org.

The Centers also maintain an online, searchable database of ADA and disability-related publications, ranging from legal documents to user-friendly fact sheets and checklists.

The last thing we're going to discuss is technical assistance offered by the ADA Centers. This means that you can call your ADA Center with questions about the ADA and other disability laws and an expert will be available to answer your question. The Centers get thousands of calls from people with disabilities, family members, advocates, law enforcement personnel such as police or fire fighters, health care providers like hospitals, doctors or nurses, employers, architects, design consultants, builders, contractors, lawyers, organizations, government entities – you get the idea. The Centers get calls from everybody. Just call 1.800.949.4232 V/TTY to ask your question and get the information you need. All calls are confidential.

The ADA Centers are not enforcement agencies. They don’t take cases and they cannot accept complaints. They can answer your questions and provide solid information about the ADA and other related disability laws. So when you have questions about the ADA, call your DBTAC ADA Center.

I hope you enjoyed watching this ASL video podcast. You can subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode. You can subscribe for free through iTunes or by going to ASL.DisabilityLawLowdown.com

The Disability Law Lowdown is sponsored by the Disability and Business Technical Assistance Centers (DBTAC) a network of ten ADA Centers around the country. The ADA Centers provide training and technical assistance on the Americans with Disabilities Act and other disability-related laws. If you have questions or would like more information, you can call us at 1-800-949-4232 (V/TTY). The ADA Centers are supported by a grant from NIDRR.