[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 226 (Friday, November 22, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 70088-70090]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-28036]


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SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION

[Docket No. SSA-2013-0042]


Agency Proposed Business Process Vision Under the Rehabilitation 
Act of 1973

AGENCY: Social Security Administration (SSA).

ACTION: Notice of availability of proposed business process vision 
following self-evaluation under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act 
of 1973 and request for comments.

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SUMMARY: On November 5, 2010, we published a Federal Register notice 
requesting comments regarding our self-evaluation under Section 504 of 
the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. We requested the public's ideas and 
suggestions on how we could best perform the self-evaluation. We 
received a limited number of comments from advocacy groups and 
individuals.
    On August 2, 2011, we published a second Federal Register notice 
announcing the two public forums we held in Falls Church, Virginia, 
where the public could provide us with comments in person or via 
telephone. The notice also requested written comments from those who 
preferred to communicate with us in writing.
    On October 24, 2011, we published a third Federal Register notice 
to extend the deadline to provide written comments.
    This Federal Register notice announces the modifications we propose 
to make to our business process based on our self-evaluation. A 
description of our business process vision under Section 504 of the 
Rehabilitation Act of 1973 is now available at www.socialsecurity.gov/accessibility/section504. Our business process vision outlines the 
actions we are currently taking to implement many of the self-
evaluation key findings and recommendations. Specifically, we are 
developing additional policies in this area to provide clear guidance 
to all SSA components. We developed and are continuing to develop 
electronic systems to capture information about the accommodations 
people tell us they need, and we trained and continue to train our 
employees about Section 504 and its requirements. Finally, we 
established a new organization, the Center for Section 504 Compliance, 
to oversee all of these efforts and manage the business process.

DATES: To ensure that your comments are considered, we must receive 
them no later than December 23, 2013.

ADDRESSES: You may submit written comments by any one of three 
methods--Internet, fax or mail. Do not submit the same comments 
multiple times, or by more than one method. Regardless of which method 
you choose, please state that your comments refer to Docket No. SSA-
2013-0042, so that we may associate your comments with the correct 
activity.
    Caution: You should be careful to include in your comments only 
information you wish to make publicly available. We strongly urge you 
not to include in your comments any personal information, such as 
Social Security numbers or medical information.
     Internet: We strongly recommend this method for submitting 
your comments. Visit the Federal eRulemaking portal at http://www.regulations.gov. Use the Search function of the Web page to find 
docket number SSA-2013-0042, and then submit your comment. Once you 
submit your comment, the system will issue you a tracking number to 
confirm your submission. You will not be able to view your comment 
immediately as we must manually post each comment. It may take up to a 
week for your comment to be viewable.

[[Page 70089]]

     Fax: Fax comments to (410) 966-2830.
     Mail: Mail your comments to the Office of Regulations and 
Reports Clearance, Social Security Administration, 3100 West High Rise 
Building, 6401 Security Boulevard, Baltimore, Maryland 21235-6401.
    Comments are available for public viewing on the Federal 
eRulemaking portal at http://www.regulations.gov, or in person, during 
regular business hours, by arranging with the contact person identified 
below.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Benita A. Dallas, Office of Civil 
Rights and Equal Opportunity, Center for Section 504 Compliance, Social 
Security Administration, 6401 Security Boulevard, Baltimore, Maryland 
21235-6401, 410-966-4590. For information on eligibility or filing for 
benefits, call our national toll-free number, 1-800-772-1213 or TTY 1-
800-325-0778, or visit our Internet site, Social Security Online, at 
http://www.socialsecurity.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 prohibits 
discrimination against individuals with disabilities and requires 
Federal agencies and organizations that receive Federal financial 
assistance to provide meaningful access to their programs and 
activities to individuals with disabilities. In Fiscal Year 2012, SSA 
paid over 61 million Social Security beneficiaries and Supplemental 
Insurance Income recipients a combined total of about $810 billion; 
completed more than 56 million transactions on our National 800 Number; 
assisted 45 million visitors; received nearly 5 million retirement, 
survivor, and Medicare applications; received about 3.2 million initial 
disability claims, and conducted 672,352 hearings.\1\
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    \1\ SSA's FY 2012 Performance and Accountability Report.
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    Sometimes disabled individuals will ask us to provide them with 
auxiliary aids to communicate or to modify the way we make our services 
available so that they can have meaningful access to SSA's programs and 
activities. We refer to these aids and modifications as ``reasonable 
accommodations.'' Currently, we do not have a streamlined process for 
providing reasonable accommodations to disabled members of the public, 
and we have a limited ability to capture, store, and retrieve 
information on the accommodation a disabled individual needs for 
meaningful access to our services. We are developing an agency-wide 
process that will allow us to ensure that our programs, services, and 
activities are accessible to all of the individuals we serve. Our new 
business process vision includes issuing policy guidance, providing 
training to our employees, establishing processes for providing 
accommodations that are effective, and developing electronic systems 
that will make it possible for us to capture, review, track, and update 
requests.
    Our business process vision outlines the procedures we will use to 
receive and process accommodation requests from individuals with 
disabilities. We plan to identify ``standard accommodations'' that we 
are able to provide immediately when an individual with a disability 
requests them, and we plan to develop a process by which we will review 
and decide requests for ``non-standard accommodations.''
    A ``standard accommodation'' is something we will be able to 
approve at the local level whenever an individual with a disability 
requests it. A standard accommodation can be an auxiliary aid, or it 
can be a service we provide to make our programs accessible to a 
customer who has a certain type of disability, such as a modification 
of our ordinary interview process. Standard accommodations will not 
require special handling or approval by a manager. When a disabled 
individual tells us that he or she needs a standard accommodation, we 
will document the request and we will retain it in an electronic system 
to ensure that, if the customer contacts or visits us again, we will 
know that he or she previously requested this accommodation and may 
need it again. An example of a ``standard accommodation'' is the UbiDuo 
communication device, which enables SSA Field Office employees to 
interact directly and immediately with customers who are deaf or hard 
of hearing.
    When a disabled individual needs an accommodation to have effective 
communication with us, he or she may request his or her preferred 
auxiliary aid if it is not one of our ``standard accommodations;'' this 
is an example of what we mean when we refer to a ``non-standard 
accommodation.'' We will give primary consideration to the individual's 
request, unless another effective means of communicating exists. 
However, we are not required to provide auxiliary aids that would 
require us to make a fundamental alteration in the nature of an agency 
program or activity or that would result in an undue financial or 
administrative burden.
    When a disabled individual is unable to access or use an agency 
program or activity, the individual may request an accommodation he or 
she believes will provide meaningful access. For the most part, 
requests for program modifications are ``non-standard accommodations.''
    Non-standard accommodation requests are necessarily individualized 
and will require consideration by a centralized component within SSA to 
ensure consistent responses. We have, therefore, created a Center for 
Section 504 Compliance (Center), which will review and process requests 
for non-standard accommodations. Previously, there was not a single 
component responsible for overseeing the strategic and tactical aspects 
of implementing SSA's Section 504 compliance. We believe our new 
process will meet the changing needs of the American public we serve by 
providing a central point of contact for reasonable accommodation 
requests.

Request for Comments

    As we implement our business process, we are asking for your input 
on how we can continue to provide meaningful access to our programs and 
services. After reviewing the business process we ask that, in 
preparing comments, you address questions such as:
    1. Are there additional standard reasonable accommodations we 
should consider offering individuals who:
     Are blind or visually impaired;
     are deaf or hard of hearing;
     have cognitive or learning issues;
     have psychological or emotional issues;
     have mobility or physical concerns; or
     have other types of disabilities?
    2. How can we best provide an opportunity for persons with 
disabilities, their family members, and those who work with, or 
advocate for, persons with disabilities, to tell us that they need an 
accommodation to have meaningful access? How should we interact with 
individuals who tell us they need an accommodation? What kind of 
information should we request? How should we notify individuals of our 
approval or denial of their request(s)?
    3. What are some of the methods we should consider for getting 
feedback about how the process is working?
    Please see the information under ADDRESSES earlier in this document 
for methods to give us your comments. We will not respond to your 
comments, but we will consider them as we review our

[[Page 70090]]

policies and instructions to determine if we should revise or update 
them.

    Dated: November 15, 2013.
Carolyn W. Colvin,
Acting Commissioner of Social Security.
[FR Doc. 2013-28036 Filed 11-21-13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4191-02-P