Accommodations For Persons With Disabilities Using Court Facilities

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and State law require all state and local governmental entities, including the courts, to provide reasonable accommodations for the needs of persons with disabilities. The ADA benefits people who have an interest in court activities, programs and services. In 1996 the Judicial Council of California, the policy-making body for the courts, adopted California Rules of Court, rule 1.100 (former rule 989.3) to implement the ADA in the state court system.

Under the ADA, State laws, and the court rule, a person is entitled to an accommodation if he or she is an “eligible person with a disability." This means the person has a physical or mental impairment that limits one or more major life activities, has a record of such impairment, or is regarded as having such impairment.

It is the individual’s responsibility to contact the court to request accommodations that would best suit his or her situation. The individual may request an accommodation by completing the Request for Accommodations by Persons with Disabilities (Judicial Council Form MC-410) or by other means, and provide the request to court staff. The individual should give the court at least five working days notice whenever possible. The court may grant, modify or deny the request. The information presented will be kept confidential unless ordered released by a Judicial officer, or a written waiver of confidentiality is received from the requestor.

The court will evaluate all requests to make reasonable modifications to its policies, practices, and procedures when these modifications are necessary to avoid discriminating against a person because of a disability.

Service animals are permitted in court facilities. The ADA defines a service animal as any guide dog, signal dog, or other animal individually trained to provide assistance to an individual with a disability. Service animals may go to all areas of the court where customers are normally allowed.

For instructions, forms, and additional information, please refer to the following links: http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/programs/access/accessibility.htm or http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp/family/speced/specedlinks.htm

For free tools that allow persons with visual disabilities to read documents in Adobe Acrobat PDF format, please visit http://www.adobe.com/enterprise/accessibility/main.html. These tools convert PDF documents into either HTML or ASCII text that can then be read by many screen-reading programs.

For further information:

Jurors: Please contact the Jury Services Office in Fairfield at (707) 207-7350 or in Vallejo at (707) 561-7850.

Others: Please contact CourtHR@solanocourts.com or call 707-207-7473.

Court employees: To request accommodation for yourself, please contact your supervisor or the Court’s Human Resources Division.