Make Your Communications Accessible To All

By John D. Hansen, Esq.

Effective communication is something every association can improve and something that members crave. Communications are ineffective when the members cannot access or understand them, which is particularly challenging for residents with hearing or visual impairment.

Making communications more accessible to those with disabilities is merely a benefit in some situations and will be a requirement in others. However, the association may benefit by considering some communication strategies that could benefit all members.

EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATIONS – GENERALLY

Associations do more than most residents know, from routine maintenance that keeps their buildings watertight, to working to beautify a park, to working on new safety improvements in the common area. Management may be fielding 50 emails per day, but the owner who does not get a response within 24 hours thinks they are being ignored.

There may also be interesting news to share from local law enforcement about mailbox break-ins or ways to keep your home safe when on vacation. A community yard sale may be planned, and a committee may be working behind the scenes to get people signed up. All of this is great information, but if the members aren’t informed of any of this, all they will believe is that their association takes their money, sends them violation notices for their garbage cans, and sends them a big packet once a year.

The following are topics for newsletters and e-blasts to keep members informed, and highlight all the association is doing:

1. Maintenance updates and reports

2. Manager reports, including average number of contacts in the association per week and when inspections are performed

3. Planned projects and budget updates

4. Reports and tips from local law enforcement

5. Common violations that are occurring and being addressed

6. Reminders about certain rules

7. Helpful tips from your landscape contractor about projects and maintenance

8. Scheduled social events.

Producing a newsletter each month takes time and creativity, and associations should consider creating a committee for this purpose. There are many people who are skilled at communicating and enjoy it.

A communication committee can be given certain parameters and encouraged to get articles from other residents. Peppering association news with an article about a good recipe or favorite nature walk will make your newsletters more interesting and increase readership.

ACCESSIBLE COMMUNICATIONS

California and federal law prohibit discrimination on the basis of disability, and that requires an association to make its communications reasonably accessible to persons who are visually or hearing impaired, especially upon request for an accommodation (42 U.S.C.A. § 3601 et. seq., Cal. Govt. Code § 12955 et seq.; and Civil Code § 51 et seq.).

The manner in which communications must be made accessible varies based upon the importance of a communication. The general rule is the more important a communication is, the more an association must do to make it accessible.

A common example is that a restaurant can ask a hearing-impaired person to point to a menu to select a meal, because selecting a meal is not a significant issue. However, a medical office may be required to provide a sign language interpreter, because discussing diagnoses and treatments is very significant and requires complex communications.

In an association, this may mean facilitating the use of technology at board meetings that will caption verbal conversations onto a tablet that a hearing-impaired person can read. This may be as simple as ensuring the acoustics in the room are sufficient for the disabled person’s device to hear the sounds, or it may be appropriate for an association to purchase the technology that facilitates this and make it available at meetings. When it comes to something more significant, like a disciplinary hearing or IDR meeting, the association may need to pay for a sign language interpreter at its expense.

If an association is using video conferencing for its meetings, be thoughtful about when graphics are being shared on a screen. Visually-impaired residents will not be able to see certain images or colors on a screen, so if it is necessary, verbally explain what is being shared, what it looks like, and why it is important. For hearing-impaired persons, you can ensure that the closed-captioning function is turned on and remind everyone to speak slowly and allow each other to finish before saying something.

For a newsletter or website, associations should consider producing the document in MS Word, instead of PDF images or hard copies, and using readable text on a website. A visually-impaired person could then use a screen-reader program that will read the text aloud to them.

Instead of only posting notices, they could be also emailed and posted on a website in a location that is easy to navigate to, as opposed to being behind several layers of menus. Instead of mailing a letter to a visually-impaired person, notices should be emailed in MS Word form or written in the body of the mail, so that a screen reader can be utilized. It would also accommodate visually-impaired residents by sending an email alerting them when something is posted to a website.

TAKEAWAYS

Whether dealing with individual owners who are requesting accommodations to comply with California and federal fair housing laws or providing routine updates and reports to the community, it is important to communicate to members in a manner that they can receive and understand.

We want them to know all that the association and management are doing, and we want all residents to feel welcome and included in their communities. Making these adjustments can be as simple as changing a program, using digital communications to supplement mandatory postings and mailings, and being ready to be creative when someone asks for a change in methods of communication.

John D. Hansen, Esq.

John D. Hansen, Esq., is a partner with Baydaline & Jacobsen LLP that specializes in general counsel to community associations and has 13 years of experience in the industry.