MARCH 1, 2010
VCU WEBCAST

Services Provided By: Caption First, Inc.


   >> CATHY HEALY:  Hi, thanks for joining us today.  I'm Cathy 
Healy with the Parent Educational Advocacy Training Center 
Next Steps Transition Training Program.  We are here at VCU 
RRTC bringing you information about topics that are specific 
to the transition of students with disabilities. 
   This is a grant funded by the U.S. Department of Education, 
Rehabilitation Services Administration. 
   And we are very excited to have with us today a speaker who 
is an expert in the field.  But before I tell you about our 
speaker, I want to give you a little bit more information 
about how to find us. 
   PEATC has been around for more than 30 years.  We have been 
talking to families in that time about special education, 
general education, and all things related to how families can 
be good support systems for their children with disabilities. 
   We invite your calls at 800-869-6782, for Virginia parents; 
or locally, 703-923-0010. 
   We invite you to go through our Website, www.PEATC.org, 
where you will find a full list of all of the webinars that we 
have done to date. 
   As part of this program we are offering professionals CEUs 
and CRCs; and to parents if you are interested, we are happy 
to submit to you a parent training certificate. 
   At the end of this presentation, we would like for you, if 
you could, please fill out an evaluation at the end of the 
program.  There will also be posted a web board discussion, 
where you can have direct access to the presenter. 
   We are very excited today to have Marian Vessels from the 
Mid-Atlantic Disability Business Technical Assistance Center 
or the DBTAC.  I've known Marian for a number of years.  She 
is quite an interesting woman, and has great information to 
impart to us. 
   We have asked her to talk a little bit about what families 
and professionals who work with young students with 
disabilities need to really know about self-disclosure and 
accommodation, as they begin to leave the protected world of 
school and into adult life, whether it's a post-secondary 
education setting, a college setting, vocational program, or 
employment.  What do students really need to know in order to 
function with respect to accommodation and self-disclosure?  
When do I need to ask about accommodations?  When do I need to 
talk about my disability because we have heard lots of 
different stories about young people at job interviews, when 
they really didn't know how to talk about the accommodations 
that they needed to do the basic functions of the job, but 
they did know how to talk to the employer about their rights, 
and that was pretty scary and intimidating for the employer 
that I was talking with. 
   We want to be sure that students have ample time to think 
through how they are going to talk about these things, in a 
place where they can be confident and comfortable and with 
people with whom they trust.  We are excited and pleased that 
Marian Vessels agreed to present her information to us today.  
Once again I would like to encourage you to visit the web 
board discussion and also fill out an evaluation for us.  
Thank very much, Marian?  Thank you for being here.
    
   >> MARIAN VESSELS:  Thank you, Kathy.  Today we are talking 
about disclosure issues for parents and students with 
disabilities.  I'm excited about this topic.  I think it's 
valid for a lot of folks to know about it and it's often 
something people don't think about.  Disclosure is the process 
of deciding, who, when, what, where to whom you disclose your 
disability to receive the accommodations you need, to perform 
the essential functions of the job or as a student.  
Disclosure as I said is something that most people don't think 
about. 
   They don't think about the issues involved, in what it means 
to disclose your disability and if you need to, so that is 
what we will be talking about today, that whole process. 
   The first thing that you need to think about when you are 
discussing the issues of disclosure is let's go back to the 
basics.  You have probably been in the situation where you 
have been under IDEA, and IDEA is what the law that will 
assist you, maybe even ADA 504, that assisted you in getting 
through your primary education.  At that point the school was 
responsible for assisting you in being successful, and they 
made sure you got the special classes or special 
accommodations that you might have needed to be successful in 
school. 
   IDEA is an entitlement law.  That's important to remember, 
because the law has very specific guidelines about how you are 
to get assistance, and what the process is.  And you are able 
to interact with that process, but they are really affirmative 
obligations that the school system has to assure your success. 
   Once you leave that system though, everything is very 
different.  The ADA, the Americans with Disabilities Act, is 
an eligibility based law, which means that if you have a 
significant disability that significantly impacts one or more 
major life activities, then you are entitled to certain 
accommodations, but only if you request those accommodations.  
You are responsible for proving your disability status, and 
then requesting the necessary accommodations you will need to 
be successful in school or work.  This is really important to 
remember. 
   No one is going to be watching out for you.  No one is going 
to be there to assure your success; only you.  So you have to 
decide, am I going to request an accommodation, and then the 
process that you need in disclosure. 
   Your rights and responsibilities; you have an obligation to 
disclose your disability if you need accommodations to help 
you be successful in school or work. 
   The responsibility is yours and yours alone to disclose or 
not to disclose. 
   You need to think about how important those accommodations 
are to assure your success.  When I first interviewed for my 
first professional job, because I used a wheelchair, I felt it 
really important to be able to disclose my ability ahead of 
time because I couldn't hide it. 
   I wanted to let people know, going in, that I had a 
disability, and that I was able to use my disability as a 
positive, and not a negative.  But that was my choice, and 
yours may be a very different choice. 
   There is no legal mandate to disclose your disability.  A 
lot of people don't understand that.  They say, well, if I 
have a disability, I have to tell everybody that I have this 
disability. 
   That is not the case.  You are not required to disclose your 
disability, prior to beginning school or work.  It is not a 
requirement. 
   I've seen some students that go in after leaving the school 
system, and when they first enter another school or they go to 
work, they want to tell everybody, all about their disability, 
and what limitations and all those kinds of things. 
   And that is not the case.  You do not have to disclose a 
disability.  It is not lying.  You are not required to 
disclose it until you need an accommodation. 
   Then you have the ability, if you don't need it initially, 
you can disclose any time during your employment or school 
career.  When I took this last job that I have now as the 
director of the ADA center, they knew I had a disability.  I 
have a spinal cord injury.  They knew I used a wheelchair.  
That was actually an asset for doing my job, talking about 
people with disabilities in the ADA.  But what I didn't know 
is six months later I'd be diagnosed with cancer. 
   Then I had a hidden disability that no one knew about, 
unless I said something.  When I interview for positions now, 
I wouldn't necessarily tell anybody that I had cancer, because 
it really wasn't relevant to my being able to do the job. 
   But my disability in a wheelchair might be relevant because 
I might need accommodations in the workplace, or in travel.  
So I disclose part of my disability, but not all of my 
disabilities. 
   Disclosure is required to receive the accommodation, as I 
said, you need to be proactive.  You need to take the 
responsibility to request the accommodation. 
   And it's very helpful if you can identify the accommodation 
you need, you have been used to dealing with your disability 
in a variety of settings.  You probably know many of the 
accommodations that you might need that will help you be 
successful. 
   If you can tell your student advisor, the disability student 
services, or your supervisor, or human resources, what kind of 
accommodations you need, that will help them assist you in 
getting those accommodations, that may be the best ones for 
your disability. 
   What are the consequences of not disclosing?  You won't 
perform at your best, if you don't have the accommodations 
that you are used to having.  You might fall behind in your 
work load.  And it would increase the stress of not using the 
accommodations you have been accustomed to.  I have seen too 
many cases where folks felt that they were able to do without 
their disability related accommodations, that they might have 
outgrown them or it's a new environment, and I don't need it 
anymore.  I've progressed. 
   And we often find that students may have a tendency to 
overestimate their ability to be successful.  Our goal is to 
make you successful in both work and/or school.  And you need 
to make some really long hard thinking about the process of 
disclosing.  And what those consequences are.  Many times, you 
can't go back and undo what you have done by not disclosing 
the disability and the need for accommodations ahead of time. 
   So, think about what it is you need, and why you need it.  
And remember that people aren't allowed to discuss your 
disability, to anyone else.  It is regulated to be very 
private, and they can't share that information, only with 
people who have a need to know.  So people aren't going to be 
discussing your disability.  They may need to discuss at some 
point the accommodation you might need, to be successful. 
   But even then, they are not allowed to discuss or disclose 
your disability.  So that should take some of the fear away, 
if you don't want people knowing about your disability. 
   Let's talk about what you need to disclose about your 
disability.  You only need to disclose just enough to verify 
that you have a disability that needs an accommodation.  As I 
said, I disclose my spinal cord injury, but I often don't 
disclose the fact that I had cancer. 
   Think about why you are disclosing.  Are you doing it 
because you feel that you might be lying or not being totally 
truthful in not disclosing your disabilities?  As I said, the 
law doesn't require that.  So you need to think about why you 
are disclosing.  You only need to disclose if it will allow 
you to verify the need for an accommodation, and to help you 
be successful. 
   You need to think about how the disability affects your 
ability to perform, either at school or at work.  If you have 
a severe disability and you definitely will need some sort of 
assistance, then that is a great reason for disclosing your 
disability. 
   But if on the other hand, you have a disability that may not 
need accommodations that will be discussed with other folks, 
you might be able to do without disclosing that disability.  
And remember, you can disclose at any point in your employment 
and/or your school career. 
   But, you can't go back and make up for lost time when you 
didn't disclose.  Think about the accommodations that have 
worked for you in the past.  What kind of accommodations 
helped?  What were marginal?  Do some exploration.  The 
assistive technology projects are a great place in every state 
to determine what kind of assistive technology may exist in 
the community right now.  Things you may never heard of, that 
may have made great advances and might be the perfect solution 
to accommodations that you might need, and you can do without 
disclosing then your disability to anyone else. 
   What are the anticipation of your activities and duties in 
your next life as a student or as an employee?  You pretty 
much know by the interview and by the job description, what 
the requirements of a job are.  You probably know as a student 
what kind of accommodations are going to help you be very 
successful.  Think about the future.  What is it that you will 
absolutely need, to be successful, and then determine what the 
disclosure will benefit you if you are allowed to get those 
accommodations. 
   Disclose only enough to justify the accommodation that you 
are requesting.  You do not as I said have to disclose all of 
your disabilities, only disclose the disability or the part of 
the disability that impacts on the accommodation you need and 
only to the extent that it's needed to get the accommodation. 
   So if you have a reading disability and others as well, you 
might only have to say I have a reading disability that has 
been documented and this is what I need to be able to be 
successful in my classes.  I will need a reader.  I will need 
a, whatever. 
   That can be very easy to discuss because it's a very limited 
aspect of maybe multiple disabilities that you have.  And you 
don't have to tell anyone about those other multiple 
disabilities, just about that reading disability. 
   But, you want to make sure that the disability that you are 
disclosing and the need for the accommodation have a 
connection.  I took a telephone call at our information center 
one day from a young man who had spinal cord injury.  He was 
upset because his employer wouldn't let him come to the work 
late every day, or when he chose to.  He said, well, I'm 
disabled, I have a disability, I'm entitled to accommodations.  
I said, yes, you are, depending on what the disability is and 
what the need for the accommodation is.  He said, I just don't 
like to get up in the morning sometimes, and because I have a 
disability, I am eligible for that.  I said no, because your 
disability doesn't connect with your not wanting to get up 
early in the morning and get to work on time. 
   If you were taking paratransit and that was the only way you 
could get to work, and paratransit could only get you to work 
at 9:00, then you could ask your employer for an accommodation 
to not come in at 8:30 but come in at 9:00 because your 
disability requires you to take paratransit.  That would be an 
accommodation, and that would be worthwhile disclosing your 
disability to justify the accommodation you need, which is 
flexible time.  But that is justified due to your disability, 
not the fact that you don't want to get up in the morning, 
even though you have a disability. 
   The disability doesn't give you carte blanche to request any 
accommodation you need.  So you can't use that for anything, 
just for ones that would allow you to do the work in the most 
efficient and effective manner that you can, by disclosing 
your disability. 
   There is such a thing as a disability script.  You need to 
practice how to disclose your disability with someone you 
trust, and feel comfortable with.  A disability script 
describes for you, to someone else, what your disability is, 
what you want to say about it, and what you want to ask for, 
as that accommodation.  This sounds pretty easy.  Yeah, I talk 
about my disability all the time.  But it's very different 
when you are being interviewed by a school, or you are being 
interviewed by an employer, or you are having to discuss your 
disability and your needs with a disability student services. 
   That can be a very challenging and a very difficult thing 
for some people to do.  It's very helpful if you take the time 
to sit down and practice what it is you are going to say, why 
you are saying it, what you want people to know about, and 
what the accommodations that you need.  It's an easy simple 
technique that will allow you to be very comfortable and 
confident when you go in and ask for an accommodation and 
discuss your disability. 
   You want to talk only about relevant disability information.  
Again, practicing that will help you be very secure in what 
you want to disclose, so you are not disclosing too much.  You 
want to emphasize your strengths and your abilities.  These 
are the kind of things that I can do, and that I'm able to do.  
If you decide to disclose, then you can say, in spite of my 
disability, or because of my disability, I've learned to be 
very creative, and flexible. 
   There is nothing like a disability that helps you figure out 
alternative ways to do things, and overcome challenges and be 
persistent, and be effective. 
   Keep the discussion very positive.  I often find that folks 
come in and say I can't do this and I can't do that, because 
of my disability.  As an employer, I don't want to hear what 
you can't do.  I want to hear what you can do.  I want to hear 
what your abilities are.  I want to hear what your strengths 
are.  Tell me what you can do.  Tell me about what you bring 
to the job or what you are going to bring to your education, 
and how we might be able to assist you.  But I want you to be 
positive. 
   I want you to think about how it's going to affect your 
ability to do my job and if you don't need to disclose, then 
you don't disclose.  But if you are, practice how you are 
going to do it so you come out very positive, very strong in 
putting your best foot forward. 
   When to disclose:  Remember I said you don't have to 
disclose at the beginning.  You can disclose at any point in 
the process.  So, in a cover letter for your application, or 
in a resume or in an application for school, I would suggest 
only disclosing if it's a benefit.  If you feel that 
disclosing your disability would assist you in getting the 
job, as I talked about in this current job as the director of 
the ADA center, it was really a positive that I had a 
disability. 
   That showed that I had experience and knowledge firsthand 
about having a disability and how that would be a positive.  
In other jobs, it has not been necessarily a positive, but I 
disclosed it because it was obvious when you came in for the 
interview that I had a disability.  And I want them to know 
that I could still do the job. 
   I talked about being able to do my position and how I'd be 
creative at being effective in doing my job.  So sometimes 
it's beneficial.  Sometimes it's not. 
   You need to disclose before an interview if you need an 
accommodation.  If you are deaf and need a sign language 
interpreter, you need to disclose that ahead of time because 
you can't expect them to have a sign language interpreter 
available for you at the interview. 
   If you don't, you probably won't be very successful in 
interviewing without it.  So if you need one for the interview 
or the application process, if you need a screen reader, if 
you need someone to assist you in the application process, you 
need to identify that ahead of time. 
   At the interview, it's deemed helpful to dispel doubts about 
the ability to perform.  In one of my jobs I was working out 
in the community, and I think there had been a lot of concerns 
about how I could be successful out in the community, in a 
wheelchair.  This is 20 years ago, when you didn't see a lot 
of people out with wheelchairs. 
   I talked about how I could do it.  I've done it before.  
These are the kind of things that I can do.  I've been very 
successful at it.  I dispelled those kinds of fears and 
concerns right up front.  So they didn't have to worry about, 
gee, how would she do this job?  Or what would she do in this 
position?  I don't think I want to hire her because I'm just 
not so sure. 
   I went in with a positive attitude and said I can do this 
job, this is what I've done in the past and this is what I'll 
do for you. 
   Other times you can disclose a disability, is after the job 
offer.  That is really one of the best times, is after they 
have offered you the job.  You have that job offer in hand.  
Now it's safe for you to be able to disclose your disability, 
because they have already committed to you.  They have already 
said, we want you.  We think you are a good addition to our 
team, or we want you to attend our school.  Then you can say, 
all right, these are the accommodations I think I will need to 
be able to be successful. 
   You also before drug testing that many companies do, you 
need to identify the kind of drugs that you might be taking 
for your disability.  This is very important.  If they find 
drugs that they aren't aware of, they could fire you or not 
hire you on the spot, because there is a potential for those 
being illegal drugs. 
   So you don't want them to find drugs in your system that you 
have not disclosed ahead of time.  This is very important to 
identify.  Again, it's confidential.  They are not going to 
share that information.  But you need to tell them if you are 
taking drugs for your conditions, your disabilities, etcetera. 
   Again, as I said, during the course of employment, as I 
said, I didn't have cancer when I started working in my last 
job.  Then I developed it.  I needed accommodations to get the 
chemotherapy and get surgery and get radiation treatment, that 
I didn't know about, and they didn't know about ahead of time.  
So things can happen. 
   You may be able to do without some of the accommodations you 
thought you would need.  You may be able to find that there is 
new technologies that will help you do your job better, do 
your school education better that you don't have to talk 
about. 
   Then again, you may never have to disclose a disability.  
You may have learned to compensate, and not have to disclose. 
   Know what accommodations you need.  Review what was 
recommended in your IEP.  Go back to the basics.  Determine 
what other procedures or devices might be out there now that 
you have never heard about.  Do some homework.  We will talk 
about some great Websites that can assist you and emphasize 
about how that accommodation will assist you in performing 
what you need to do in school or in work. 
   Think positive.  Talk about the positive aspects of why this 
will help you be successful.  When is it too late to disclose?  
You need to disclose while you are in that process, while you 
are working or while you are in a class.  It is too late to 
disclose when you finish the class and realize you got a 
failing grade, or after you have been fired.  You can't say, 
ooh, I'm sorry, I should have told you that I have a 
disability. 
   They don't have to take you back, they don't have to erase 
that grade, they don't have to give you a do-over. 
   What is required is you have the obligation to determine at 
some point that this isn't working for me, I need to disclose 
my disability and let them know what I need to be successful.  
But that is your obligation.  Again, it's too late.  They 
don't have to erase a grade.  Or, even if you disclose halfway 
through, they don't have to erase those test scores. 
   You have to live up to what you decided until you decide 
differently.  You have a bad grade, you may have disciplinary 
action because you didn't follow through, and you weren't able 
to do what you needed to do at work because of your 
disability.  Once you disclose, there is an obligation for 
them to try to assist you.  But you need to decide when it's 
important for you to disclose, and then live with those 
consequences. 
   There are lots of partners that you can engage to help you 
figure out what kind of accommodations you will need, and when 
you do decide to disclose how that will help you.  At work, 
human resources or the personnel office would probably be the 
place you would go to.  You can also go to your supervisor if 
you feel comfortable.  They will then assist you in 
identifying what your job responsibilities are, and what kind 
of accommodations might be helpful. 
   So consider them part of your team.  But also know going in 
what kind of accommodations you are requesting, or what the 
issue is that you are having problems with, that you think an 
accommodation would assist you.  In school, the disability 
services office in almost every college and university is 
available to assist you.  They can assist you in helping work 
with the instructor, to determine what it is you will need to 
be successful. 
   It may be longer time for testing if that is validated by 
your disability.  It might be having a note-taker.  It might 
be all kinds of other types of assistance that you could use 
in being successful at school. 
   Other resources that are available to you could be the 
Department of Rehabilitation Services.  Every state has one, 
that will allow you to be successful in both school and work.  
Many times they will start working with students before they 
ever get out of high school.  So they will be able to assist 
you in determining what services you might be eligible for, 
what supports you might be eligible for.  They have training 
programs.  They have assistance for school. 
   So it's a wonderful resource for you to be able to determine 
what kind of services and programs you might be eligible for.  
I was able to go to the Department of Rehabilitation Services 
when I was injured when I was in college.  They assisted me in 
getting accommodations I needed to go back to school and to 
graduate. 
   It's a wonderful resource.  There are some eligibility 
processes you need to go through, but I would strongly 
encourage you to talk with them about the services that may be 
available to you. 
   Another resource that we use frequently in our jobs is the 
Job Accommodation Network, or JAN as we refer to it, funded by 
the Department of Labor.  It has been around for over 20 
years.  They will Internet on the phone, be able to assist 
you, in identifying what kind of accommodations that are 
currently available for your specific disability, based on the 
kind of activities that you are currently doing, which means 
you can go to them if you are working, and you can go to them 
if you are a student. 
   They have different types of resources for each category.  
They have specialists who are rehabilitation professionals, 
who will assist you in identifying the best resources and the 
latest techniques and strategies to assist you in being 
successful. 
   The assistive technology projects are also available in each 
state.  You often hear it referred to as AT.  The AT projects 
will assist you to load libraries so you can borrow techniques 
or strategies or implements to help you figure out which kind 
of assistive technology might be helpful to you. 
   I have a smart pen that I'm holding up that is a pen that 
will record, and when you write on special paper, you will be 
able to identify points in the lecture or in the discussion at 
a meeting, or doing activities and lists you will be able to 
record it and you will be able to identify which are very 
important.  You will be able to highlight those and bookmark 
those and go back and identify them.  Just one of the new 
technologies that you are able to get in many different 
places, that the assistive technology can talk to you about. 
   There are services for those who are blind and deaf, in 
every state.  There are disability-specific organizations.  If 
you have a learning disability, there is specific 
organizations for those just with learning disabilities.  If 
you have cerebral palsy, United Cerebral Palsy, so these are 
specific organizations that can assist you in finding the 
resources available to assist you in being better able to 
function within your environment. 
   In the interview process we want you to be very positive 
about your skills and abilities, promote what it is you can 
do, not what you can't do. 
   Be prepared to answer how you can do the job.  What is it 
that you bring to this table?  What is it that you are best 
at?  Why should they hire you?  Discuss examples of how you 
have done similar activities.  What is it you have done that 
allows you to maybe compensate for your disability?  What is 
it that you are best at?  How have you learned to make your 
disability an asset?  What is it that you have done and what 
strategies have you used to be successful in the past, that 
then should help you be successful in the future? 
   Decide ahead of time as we have talked about if you are 
going to disclose your disability.  Use your disability script 
to know how you are going to say what you are going to say.  
If you have a visible disability, consider discussing how you 
have learned to perform the required tasks.  Like I discussed 
with my interviews, I've told them, you know, you may wonder 
how I can do this.  And this is what I've done in the past.  I 
know that I can be successful. 
   To review a little bit, it's important to remember how 
different your life during IDEA is, versus your life with ADA 
and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and other federal 
law that talks about disability.  You have a very proactive 
responsibility under the Americans with Disabilities Act to 
discuss your disability if you want the accommodation.  You 
need to think about how important that is, and who and when to 
disclose. 
   Are you going to disclose?  Your decision, your chance to 
decide what is important.  Remember, parents are not eligible 
to talk about this to your employer, and/or to the school.  As 
adult, once you leave the school system, you are now the sole 
resource for yourself.  No one else can intervene for you. 
   It is your duty and your right and yours alone to disclose 
the disability, or to live by that decision.  Your parents are 
not allowed to participate in this process anymore.  You can 
discuss things with them, you can use them as a resource, but 
they are not going to go to the meetings with you.  They are 
not going to go to the interview with you. 
   You need to decide what it is you want to disclose and how 
you want to do it.  We talked about disclosing only the things 
that you need to disclose to justify the accommodation you are 
requesting. 
   You don't have to talk about all of the disabilities that 
you have, only the ones that are going to be most important to 
justify your accommodation. 
   When to disclose is very important.  My recommendation is, 
only disclose after you have been in the position or have 
applied and been accepted to a school.  That way, you are not 
biasing them.  You are talking about the positives, and maybe 
not the negatives that people might perceive.  It is not a bad 
thing to disclose once you have gotten into the system, once 
you have been employed or once you have gone to school.  It is 
part of that process.  You have a whole continuum at which you 
can disclose your disability. 
   How to disclose.  Who do you want to disclose to?  How much 
you want to disclose to and the benefits to disclose and not 
to disclose.  You have benefits and responsibilities in that 
decision. 
   Disclosure is a very personal choice.  No one can tell you 
what is right for you.  It is a decision that you need to 
make.  There is some resources that I thought would be very 
helpful for you. 
   The first one is called disclosure 411.  It is a document 
that was developed just for youth with disabilities, and it's 
a workbook.  It will take you through this whole process step 
by step, to help you decide what you want to do, what you want 
to disclose, why you want to disclose, all the things we have 
talked about. 
   It will be a good chance for you to work through all of 
these issues, and be very comfortable about it.  The Equal 
Employment Opportunity Commission or EEOC has a book that I 
think is very helpful, called, your rights as a person with a 
disability.  It talks about your rights as a person going into 
the work force. 
   I also think it's very helpful for people even in the school 
system to know what their rights and responsibilities are.  
Thirdly, I think we are a great resource, the disability and 
business technical assistance centers or DBTACs we are a 
national network of ADA center.  We provide information to 
anyone about their rights and responsibilities under the law 
so we can talk to employers.  We can talk to school systems.  
We can talk to people with disabilities, employees, about any 
aspect of the ADA. 
   So it could be your ability to be independent in the work 
setting or school setting, but also to be independent and 
getting goods and services from a restaurant or a hotel or a 
movie theater, or buying things at the grocery store, or 
getting services from motor vehicles administration and 
community service centers or libraries. 
   All of these are things that we provide information on.  We 
have a Website, and we provide materials and information and 
training through our 800 number.  There are ten centers around 
the country.  We specialize in the region that you live in.  
You can call us central 1-800 number and we are going to help 
you.  We are a federally funded project, to assist people in 
knowing their rights and responsibilities under the Americans 
with Disabilities Act. 
   Again, my name is Marian Vessels and it has been my pleasure 
to talk to you today about the disclosure issues.  I wish you 
success in all that you endeavor.  Bye. 
   
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