>> Welcome, everyone, to the LEAD Center's webinar on Achieving Equal Access and Opportunity, Requirements and Promising Practices. We want to go over some details so that you will be able to fully participate in the webinar. The audio for today's webinar is being broadcast through your computer. Please make sure your speakers are turned on or your headphones are plugged in. You can control the audio broadcast via the audio broadcast panel. If you accidentally close the panel, you can reopen by going to the communicate menu at the top of the screen and choosing join audio broadcast. If you do not have sound capabilities on your computer or prefer to listen by phone, please dial 1-415-655-0001. The meeting code is 665-110-654. You do not need to enter an attendee ID. Real-time captioning is provided during the webinar. The captions can be found in the media viewer panel which appears in the lower-right corner of the webinar platform. If you want to make the media viewer panel larger, you can minimize other panels like chat, Q and A and/or participants. We encourage you to submit questions during the webinar. To submit questions, please use the chat box or the Q and A box to send any questions you have during the webinar. And we will direct the questions accordingly during the Q and A portion toward the end of the webinar. If you're listening by phone and not logged into the webinar, you may also ask questions by emailing questions to amilioto@NDI-inc.org. Please note that the webinar is being recorded and the materials will be placed on the LEAD Center website at LEADCenter.org/webinars. If you experience any technical difficulties during the webinar, please use the chat box to send a message to the host, Al Milioto, or email him at amilioto@NDI-inc.org. I am the moderator. I am Rebecca Salon of the LEAD Center. And we're very excited to be doing a webinar on this topic. It's been very important for the LEAD Center's work over the years. For those of you who may not be familiar with the LEAD Center, we are the National Center on Leadership for the Employment and Economic Advancement of People with Disabilities. We're a collaborative of disability, workforce and economic empowerment organizations, led by National Disability Institute. LEAD Center is fully funded by the US Department of Labor's Office of Disability Employment Policy. Our mission is to advance sustainable individual and systems-level change that results in improved competitive integrated employment and economic self-sufficiency outcomes for people across the spectrum of disability. And there's a link to our website which has lots of great information that supports our mission. So we're excited today to be releasing the promising practices and achieving nondiscrimination and equal opportunity, a section 188 disability reference guide. And this has been a multiyear team effort, and the LEAD Center has the privilege of working with the Civil Rights Center, and you'll hear from presenters from the Civil Rights Center today in the webinar, with ODEP and with the Employment and Training administration on this document. We also would greatly like to thank the LEAD Center Team that participated in that, which includes Michael Morris, Jamie Robinson who you'll also hear from today. And Bobby Silverstein who served as a subject matter expert and did an enormous amount of work on this document. So during the next hour and a half that we're together, we're going to provide an overview of WIOA's nondiscrimination and equal opportunity requirements that are in section 188. We're going to review the recently released and updated disability reference guide. And there's a link to it that you'll be able to access. We're going to discuss LEAD Center's work in Missouri and Virginia in implementing statewide equal opportunity approaches using the disability reference guide. And then other states to guide HAC certification. We're going to engage in a discussion with leaders from Iowa and Minnesota on their use of the Disability Reference Guide, and their plans for the future using the new guide. And we're going to share additional resources to support the work of workforce vocational rehabilitation and other WIOA partners in promoting equal opportunity. Before we get into the specifics of the webinar, I wanted to invite Chris Button. Christopher Button is the supervisor for workforce systems policy at the Office of Disability Employment Policy at the Department of Labor. I want to invite Chris to make some welcoming comments. Chris? And I think you're on mute. Let me see.

>> Yeah.

>> Okay, Chris, you were on mute, if you could start again.

>> We will start again. Thank you so much. You can hear me now, Rebecca?

>> We can.

>> Okay, great. Well, thank you. Thanks also to all of our panelists today. The leaders from our federal partners, the state leaders and of course all of the LEAD Center staff and subject matter experts. You all have all been amazing as we've worked collaboratively to create this product that I think is really just a very practical, useful, innovative resource to the field, to the workforce development system, to their partners and even to other programs and services that want to make sure that what they are doing is available to use in adults with disabilities. ODEP, the Office of Disability Employment Policy, is, as many of you know, a policy office at the Department of Labor. We work collaboratively across government to assist agencies, to align programs, laws, guidance, to think about disability up front as they are working in their various areas of jurisdiction. And the goal of course is to increase competitive integrated employment and economic advancement for people with disabilities. We knew early on that the nondiscrimination and equal opportunity requirements of section 188 were really important, and decided early on to try to create something that would be useful to the field and pull together in one place examples of practices that can be used by the American Job Centers and their partners to ensure that they're doing all that they can do to effectively serve people with disabilities. So the guide was developed originally under WIA and now of course revised and updated now that we are under WIOA. Our examples were originally collected in three ways. One, we went to the NASWA EO committee, equal opportunity committee, and asked them to reach out to their various stakeholders to collect examples of what could be done. We went to our partners at the Civil Rights Center here at Department of Labor to review what was at the time called the State MOA, methods of administration plans. That term has been changed under WIOA to be nondiscrimination plan. And three, we went to one of the DOL-funded grant initiatives, the Disability Employment Initiative, which was funding grants across the nation within the job centers to build capacity to serve youth and adults with disabilities. And in that way we were able to collect just a plethora of great examples that were divided and chunked according to the various Section 188 requirements. And of course the initial version of the 188 guide was released. Then it was necessary to update. We wanted to update it once the WIOA was enacted. So we went back to our team, to the CRC, ETA, ODEP of course. We had this listeners office here helping us. And of course we couldn't have done it without the help of our LEAD Center experts. And what we wanted to do was to add additional examples in areas where the law had been tweaked. And we're going to be talking about some of those areas today. We pulled together that same team. The result is this revised section 188 guide that's being now released today. We're really excited about its release. We continue to think that this is a product that really will be so helpful to the job centers and partners across the country. And I'm just really excited about today's webinar. Rebecca, I'm going to turn it right back to you so we can start hearing about some of the specifics. Thanks.

>> Thanks so much, Chris. I now have the privilege of introducing our next two speakers. Lee Perselay is the chief at the Office of External Enforcement at the Civil Rights Center at the US Department of Labor. And David Laboy is technical advisor at Office of External Enforcement. And they'll be discussing WIOA section 188 and the updated section 188 disability reference guide. So with that, I will turn it over to Lee and David.

>> Thank you very much, Rebecca. This is David Laboy and I'd like to thank everyone again for joining us today, for giving us this opportunity to share this time with you, to speak about the section 188 disability reference guide and some of the things you should know regarding this updated guide. I'd also like to thank Chris button and the rest of the ODEP team and the folks at the LEAD Center for all their help, and as well as the other panelists who will be speaking today. The Civil Rights Center at the US Department of Labor's Office of External Enforcement supports the Civil Rights Center's responsibility to administer and enforce the laws that apply to recipients of financial assistance under Title I of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act and the Workforce Investment Act. Also the American Job Center partners listed in WIOA section 121B, they offer programs and activities through the workforce development system, and state and local governments and other public entities operating programs or activities related to labor and the workforce. So I guess one thing that we could sort of mention from the beginning is that the regulations for section 188 of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, if you want more information about those regulations, you can actually find those on the Civil Rights Center's webpage. We have a link to them there. And you know, going back to what section 188 says about equal opportunity and nondiscrimination, section 188 of WIOA prohibits discrimination against individuals in any WIOA Title I financially-assisted program or activity which includes job training for adults and youth programs or activities provided by recipients of American Job Centers, also known as one-stop centers, or programs or activities that are part of the one-stop system operated by one-stop partners under section 121B of WIOA. Next slide please. These programs or activities may not refuse to offer or provide services to individuals because of their race, color, religion, national origin, age, disability or political affiliation or belief. Discrimination on these bases is also prohibited against any employees of a WIOA title I financially-assisted program or activity. Next slide, please. The provisions in section 188 regulations concerning individuals with disabilities generally parallel the requirements found under the Americans with Disabilities Act and section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act states that no otherwise qualified individual with a disability in the United States shall solely by reason of his or her disability be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance or under any program or activity conducted by any executive agency or by the United States Postal Service. So with that, I'll pass it off to Lee Perselay who will continue. Next slide.

>> Thanks, David. This is Lee Perselay. I'm the chief of the Office of External Enforcement at the Civil Rights Center. For the remainder of this portion of the presentation, David and I are going to go back and forth on slides. So by the end of the time you'll learn to recognize each of our voices. At the top of the slide we have the official name of the disability reference guide. So Promising Practices in Achieving Nondiscrimination and Equal Opportunity: A Section 188 Disability Reference Guide. The title is quite similar, though not exactly the same, as the guide when it was first completed under WIOA. The goal of the section 188 disability reference guide, as Chris alluded to earlier, is to provide real-world examples of ways in which to comply with a section 188 regulations. Section 188 refers to specific section in the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act that contains the nondiscrimination provisions for WIOA. And that section also gives the Civil Rights Center and the Department of Labor the authority to promulgate regulations which Chris mentioned earlier, David as well, went into effect in January 2017. So the guide has been updated to take that into account. As Chris said, the new guide contains additional examples that cover new or revised provisions in the section 188 regulations. And the guide is generally divided into two parts. Part one is promising practices that promote nondiscrimination and equal opportunity for individuals with disabilities in the AJC system. And part two contains language from the regulations that form the basis of the requirements addressed by the promising practices in part one. We anticipate that the two documents, section 188 regulations and the disability reference guide, will be used together. And the guide is structured in that way. Next slide, please. So for the rest of our portion of the presentation, we're going to just hit highlights of things we think that you need to know. And many of these for some folks on the webinar will be familiar topics. There will be terms and issues that you may be familiar with from your experience with section 504 or with the Americans with Disabilities Act. You know, those same themes appear also in our section 188 regulations and consequently in the section 188 disability reference guide. So we'll start out at the top by talking about what you need to know about including individuals with disabilities, which is a priority for the Department of Labor in General, as well as including ODEP and the Civil Rights Center. It's also a priority under the regulations and the statute. So AJC programs are expected to meet the needs of customers by ensuring equal access to their programs and activities for all eligible individuals, including individuals with disabilities. AJC programs are required to serve individuals with disabilities and not just automatically refer such individuals to the state vocational rehabilitation program. In addition, AJC's may not refuse to serve individuals with disabilities because the AJC has made a referral to vocational rehabilitation. The most important lesson to take out of this is that individuals with disabilities have the right to choose whether they want to go to VR or not, or whether they want to receive their services from the AJC or other recipients. It's really up to the individual. Next slide, please. Continuing the theme of including individuals with disabilities, WIOA in section 188 as well as other federal laws require AJC programs to be accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities. So for example, this is an example that folks can find in the disability reference guide. The front desks are partially lowered so that job seekers with a lower line of sight are welcomed at eye level. In addition, AJC programs should develop strategic outreach plans that reach people across the spectrum of disabilities and other underserved populations including collaborating with partners that serve individuals with disabilities. In fact, there's a specific requirement in section 188 regulations regarding outreach. It's in section 38.40. This is a new requirement. And before I pass it back to David, if folks are interested in finding the section 188 regulations as mentioned earlier, you can find them on our website, or they're also located -- if you have WestLaw or if you just Google them at 29CFR part 38. David?

>> Thank you, Lee. Moving on to disclosure of disability. The WIOA section 188 regulations set strict parameters about collecting, maintaining and disclosing any medical or disability-related information. More detail about that can be found at the regulations that Lee just mentioned, the 29CFR 38.41 specifically. And this includes any medical or disability-related information obtained by a particular individual, including information that could lead to a disclosure of a disability, must be collected on separate forms. And that information, whether it's kept in a hard copy or electronic file must be maintained apart from any other information about the individual and treated as confidential and also secured, which means potentially under password protection. In addition, each recipient must maintain and submit to the Civil Rights Center upon request a log of complaints filed with recipient-alleged discrimination on the basis that we mentioned earlier. But specifically for the purpose of this presentation I wanted to mention that included disability complaints. So promising practice would be for AJC programs to develop written policies regarding access to and storage of medical information that provide training for staff on these policies. Next slide, please. In terms of other things we need to know about disability discrimination, disability discrimination can include prohibited activities such as denying a qualified individual with a disability opportunity to participate in or benefit from any aid, benefit, service or training. It can also mean providing a qualified individual with a disability with any aid, benefit, service or training that is not equal to what is offered to others and that is not as effective. AJC programs are required to ensure that individuals with disabilities have equal access to their programs, benefits and activities. And AJC programs must provide individuals with disabilities the same opportunities to participate in programs, projects and activities offered to individuals without disabilities. Excuse me. Finally, individuals with disabilities should be served through the same channels as individuals without disabilities, receiving reasonable accommodations, modifications and auxiliary aids and services as the program. And this would include access to employment opportunities and all functions performed by AJC programs. Next slide, please. I'm sorry. So for another point about disability discrimination, providing different, segregated or separate aid, benefits, service or training, unless it is necessary to do so in order to provide an aid, benefit, service or training that is as effective as those provide to others and consistent with the requirements of the Rehabilitation Act as amended by WIOA, including those provisions that prioritize opportunities in competitive integrated employment is something that would be considered an issue. So you do not want to provide different, segregated or separate benefits, services, aid or training unless it is necessary to do so in order to provide that training. With that, I'll pass it on to my colleague Lee.

>> Thank you, David. So the provisions that David was just talking about are what we consider to be the general disability discrimination provisions under the section 188 regulations. And they're located in section 38.12. As you can see and hear, they generally track some of the provisions in the ADA. Now we're going to talk a little bit more about specific requirements that are contained in the 188 regulations, as well as examples in the guide. So here's a short list of specific requirements that we're going to talk about that would be useful for just about anybody to know about. Reasonable accommodations is a familiar phrase that I'm sure many people know. That's covered in section 38.14 of the regulations. Reasonable modifications and policies, practices and procedures, that's also a similar term that many people know from the Americans with Disabilities Act. That's also covered in section 38.14. The provision of effective communication, including all the civil rights and services is covered in the regulations under section 38.15. That section also includes a new section on accessible electronic and information technology. Section 38.13 covers physical accessibility requirements. And section 38.13B also covers a new term called programmatic accessibility that we'll talk about in a few minutes. So in general, the specific disability provisions are contained in sections 38.13 to 38.17. The general provision that prohibits disability discrimination is contained in 38.12. Next slide. Let's talk a little bit about reasonable accommodations. I'm guessing most people know what the term means, but we'll just quickly go through what it means. Reasonable accommodation means with regard to any aid, benefit, service, training or employment. A recipient must provide reasonable accommodation to qualified individuals with disabilities, unless providing the accommodation would cause undue hardship. The term undue hardship is another term that's defined in the regulations. It's a term that's very specific and requires detailed analysis and consequently is not often used as an exception. Next slide. Continuing to talk about reasonable accommodations, AJC programs should ensure that they have policies and procedures in place regarding the provision of reasonable accommodations and then AJC program staff receives regular training about accommodations. As we all know, many forms of reasonable accommodations are available. And the way the process works, ideally, is that the individual with a disability and the AJC program should work together to identify the most effective reasonable accommodation for the individual. Moreover, AJC programs should also ensure that their accommodations and procedures and policies are widely publicized within both the AJC program and the broader community to ensure that individuals with disabilities are aware of them and know how to utilize them when seeking benefits, services or training. This can be accomplished for example by posting the policies and procedures for providing reasonable accommodations on the AJC program's website and then public areas of the AJC programs, including waiting areas and the resource library, or including them in written outreach materials. Next slide. So now we're going to talk about reasonable modifications and policies, practices and procedures. Reasonable modifications differ slightly than reasonable accommodations in the way that it's applied specifically to current policies, practices or procedures by the AJC or the other entity that's involved. So for example, with respect to any aid, benefit, service, training and employment, a recipient is required to make reasonable modifications in policies, practices or procedures when the modifications are necessary to avoid discrimination, unless doing so would fundamentally alter the nature of the program, service or activity. The term fundamentally alters is also defined in the regulations. It requires a significant analysis to reach that point, and in most cases the issue is not a fundamental alteration, although there are some situations where it may occur. Here are some examples of reasonable modifications of policies, practices and procedures from the guide. Number one, the AJC programs anticipate necessary alterations to factors such as the place, time and physical environment for individuals with disabilities. For example, access to a quiet environment is available for individuals with disabilities who require such a quiet environment to read and comprehend materials. Another example is where the AJC program modifies their no pets policy to permit an individual with a disability to use their service animal in all areas of the facilities where the program is offered and where members of the public AJC program participants or invitees are permitted to go. Next slide. So here are some more examples consistent with what we've been talking about in the realm of reasonable accommodations and reasonable modifications. A promising practice for the AJC program to have written policies requiring reasonable accommodations or modifications for the non-physical and/or mental impairments of an otherwise qualified individual with a disability. These policies should explain when reasonable accommodations must be provided and include the specific processes for handling requests for reasonable accommodations. Again, similar to what we've already been talking about. David?

>> Thank you, Lee. Continuing on with some more information about auxiliary aids and services. A recipient must take appropriate steps to ensure that communications with individuals with disabilities are as effective as communications with others. This means furnishing appropriate auxiliary aids and services where necessary to provide individuals with disabilities an equal opportunity to participate in and enjoy the benefits of a service, program or activity. In determining what types of auxiliary aids and services are necessary, the recipient must give primary consideration to the request of an individual with a disability. And the guide has many examples of strategies to ensure effective communication with examples of what some of the auxiliary aids and services could be. Next slide, please. So when developing, procuring, maintaining or using electronic and information technology, a recipient must use technology applications or adaptations which incorporate accessibility features, are consistent with modern accessibility standards and provide individuals with disability access to information, resources, programs and activities that are fully accessible and ensure that those opportunities and benefits are provided in an equally effective and equally integrated manner such as what would be available to other program participants, applicants, employees or anyone else that goes through the AJC system. With that, I'll pass it back to Lee.

>> Now we're going to talk briefly about physical accessibility. So the language that you see in front of you or that you hear if you're listening is a shortened version of the language in the section 188 regulations. In general it says that no qualified individual with a disability can be excluded from participation in or being denied the benefits of a recipient's service, program or activity, or subject to discrimination because the recipient's facilities are inaccessible or unusable by individuals with disabilities. Recipients that are subject to Title II of the ADA must ensure that new facilities or alterations that began construction after January 26th 1992 comply with the applicable federal design standards. Recipients that have received federal financial assistance also must meet the accessibility obligations under section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and DOL's regulations at 29CFR part 32. The guide has a few examples about physical accessibility for AJC customers with disabilities. Many of them involve for example utilizing equal opportunity officers during the planning of any physical site to ensure accessibility. Another example is including individuals with disabilities and their representatives and advocates or advisory committees or review teams when developing plans for new or different sites. And a third example is collaborating with state vocational rehabilitation agencies, centers for independent living, the regional ADA technical assistance centers, et cetera, to leverage their expertise in assessing and complying with applicable accessibility standards. The general rule on physical accessibility is it's almost always cheaper to plan ahead and make sure the site is accessible rather than have to retrofit it afterwards. Next slide please. The last of the specific features that we're going to talk about is a term called programmatic accessibility. Programmatic accessibility is a phrase that was not previously included in the Workforce Investment Act. It appears for the first time in the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. It's really a conglomeration of the specific terms that we've just been talking about, with the exception of physical accessibility. It's defined in the regulations in section 38.13B, and it includes providing reasonable accommodations, making reasonable modifications to policies, practices or procedures. Administering programs in the most integrated setting appropriate, and communicating with individuals with disabilities as effectively as others. Including providing appropriate auxiliary services. The term programmatic accessibility which we're talking about now is different than a similar term under section 504 in Title II of the ADA which is program accessibility. That term program accessibility means that when you look at a program in its entirety, it's accessible to individuals with disabilities. It also means that every feature may not have to be physically accessible. However, it does not apply where there has been alterations or new construction, as we note on the slide. So I think the most important lesson to take out of this slide is that the term programmatic accessibility is very different from the similar term program accessibility.

>> So with that, we just have to wrap up a little bit, a couple things that we want to review. And so you know, as we mentioned earlier, the section 188 regulations can be found at 29CFR part 38. The new section 188 disability reference guide can be found on CRC's website, which the website for anyone who would like is www.DOL.gov/OASAM/programs/CRC. As Lee mentioned earlier, you can also Google our office and that information is on there. And as well as more information about the Civil Rights Center. I believe there will be questions at the end, so if you have any of those, we encourage you to go ahead and enter those. And if you have any specific questions about technical assistance or about what we discussed, you can also contact the Civil Rights Center at CivilRightsCenter@DOL.gov. That's our email address. And we can also provide any technical assistance or responses through that venue as well. Rebecca, I'll pass it back to you. Thank you very much.

>> Thank you so much, David and Lee. That was just so informative and so much great information. So we want to move on now. I'd like to introduce Jamie Robinson who's the manager of financial empowerment and workforce for the LEAD Center. And the 188 guide development and its implementation have been a real passion of hers. She's been heavily involved over the past several years and has done some great work with a number of states. So she wants to share that with you now, and then she's going to facilitate a panel which she'll introduce in a moment. So Jamie?

>> Hey, thanks, Rebecca. Good afternoon, everyone. Yeah, before I introduce our panel members today, I do want to share a few examples of work with states that LEAD has collaborated with around the 188 guide. But also you know, not only how these states are meeting 188 compliance like Lee and David are talking about here, but how it's really opening and expanding access to services and to employment for people with disabilities. And the first is the state of Missouri. And I'll share some of it with you, and you can certainly access this brief that captures much of what I'm talking about in there. Several years back, the Missouri Workforce Development System revamped pretty much its entire equal opportunity program. And they made it a priority to strengthen their partnership with vocational rehabilitation. And then although section 188 prohibits discrimination against individuals across all diversity bases, they decided disability was going to be their primary focus, because it can affect anyone at any time. And so the partnership was led by the state equal opportunity officer and the state VR director. They jointly developed a statewide training using the 188 disability reference guide as the framework. And to kind of help start and kickoff this work, LEAD assisted them to conduct a survey of workforce customers, of staffs and also of employers, all around section 188 policies and procedures and physical and programmatic accessibility. And the results of the surveys were pretty interesting. They did uncover pretty critical areas in need of training. And that helped drive the training curriculum. And also the support that would be offered after the training was given, which I think is such an important part of training. Some of the needs that were identified in the surveys revealed really a big kind of lack of understanding around reasonable accommodations which Lee and David both talked about. They also revealed a lack of awareness on how immediate and direct referrals of customers with disabilities to VR could be considered discrimination. That was really a big finding. And then also how partnering with other programs is just such a major way to help ensure programmatic accessibility for customers with multiple resource needs. So these areas were then incorporated into the training using the section 188 guide as kind of their baseline of information for regulations and compliance pieces. And then they pulled in promising practices from the guide to kind of offer the relatable scenarios, examples of how could they more effectively serve customers with disabilities. They did develop a virtual statewide training. It became a requirement across the entire state workforce system, but they offered two tracks. One was a track targeting leadership which included the workforce development board, the one-stop operator sand the AJC management. And the second track was targeted to frontline staff and partners. And they also included VR counsellors, TANF counsellors, veteran programs staff and other WIOA partners within the local AJC's. And these kind of two tracks allowed for more targeted information, more examples to be discussed that were related to policy and procedures that were common to the workforce and policy leaders, and then also that were relatable to the program staff and the partners. And then the final piece there was afterwards they did a post-training assessment. And they sent that out all across the state. But as a part of this, they ended up tasking the workforce staff to engage in a series of action items. And so these promoted hands-on practice and aimed to build their capacity in serving individuals with disabilities. And those included things like actively reaching out to disability organizations to look for and identify collaboration opportunities. They also implored them to look into the interactive process of reasonable accommodation procedures and try to understand more about what that entails, the different steps and the resources. And then also they asked them to research local, state and national resources like -- I think it was Lee that mentioned Job Accommodation Network or ABA regional centers, independent living centers. And I think the follow-up that they did around the action items was maybe more important than the actual training. Because that was where they had their local equal opportunity officers and their local VR staff across the state to help kind of support those action items and encourage the behavioral and cultural shift. So a lot of lessons learned in Missouri, and we thank them for all of their incredible work. The second example is Virginia. And we have a brief coming out pretty soon, and that walks you through Virginia's process of starting with their unified state plan and looking at its goals. They created a cross-systems task force. And their vision was that AJC access is everyone's responsibility, and access to AJC is for everyone. And they kind of took that and ran. And you'll read about how influential VR has been in serving in a leadership position there in Virginia to help ensure that disability is integrated across all of workforce development priority areas and why that's made such a difference in that state. And you'll also kind of learn about the representation on that task force, why it's been so instrumental. It includes many diversified partners across the spectrum of disabilities. Of course, the Independent Living Center, the Commission for the Blind, the Agency for the Deaf. All four partners are represented. And then also they made sure they had policy folks at the table and program perspectives. And it has really made a big difference in their state. And you know, they're still working through a lot because they have so many partners at the table. But really they're moving forward in policy and their training initiatives. And it's pretty amazing what they're accomplishing. Finally, I just want to share an example that highlights the work of three states that do include Missouri and Virginia, but also California. And is now addressing the new section 188 guide as well, and that's around AJC certification. And so you can see here we did a three-part webinar series. We also developed a brief. And that's called the WIOA Section 188 and AJC Certification: A Window of Opportunity to Impact Equal Opportunity Policy and Practice to Better Serve Individuals with Disabilities. So LEAD has an opportunity to collaborate with two other national technical assistance teams that happen to be housed within National Disability Institute, and that is the Disability and Employment Initiative, or DEI, and also the Workforce Innovation Technical Assistance Center, or WInTAC, that works with state VR agencies and partners on implementing WIOA. And all three of our TA centers joined forces. And it was primarily due to the high technical assistance demand in the area of 188 and AJC certification as well as just generally equal opportunity and again what Lee mentioned, programmatic accessibility. Everything kind of seems to always come back to that. And so in the webinar series you hear from staff and leadership, different WIOA partners from Virginia, Missouri and California. You'll hear their insights, their action steps, challenges related to 188 and AJC certification. In Missouri you'll hear from their state workforce director on why EO has been made such a priority, you know, backing that up with funding. Also from the state equal opportunity director and the VR director on how critical the partnership has been in impacting local-level collaboration and improving access. And then Virginia talks about their journey and the impact of establishing kind of shared ownership across WIOA partners in developing their action plan for how are we going to expand access, but how are we going to really address continuous improvement? We keep looking at this accessibility to services and employment, and how can we make it more effective. And then California shares more on -- they developed two levels of AJC certification. A baseline level, which is basically standard level of accessibility that's required in all AJC's. And then they also have a hallmark of excellence which basically kind of represents American Job Centers moving beyond the basic level to achieve greater access and showing really more increased employment for people with disabilities. And so there's a real motivation factor going on there in California. I also want to take a moment to point out that we used a lens of implementation science in this brief which if you've never heard of that before, it's the study of factors that influence the effective use of innovations and change. Or it basically means making change happen. The National Implementation Research Network has studied evidence-based practices in the implementation of change efforts. And the findings show there are specific drivers of change, and also stages of progression that can increase successful implementation. And so if you're interested in learning more about this and these drivers of change, you can find those resources in this brief. You also have a resource listed here at the bottom, the Inclusive Career Pathways desktop. This incorporates many useful resources that WIOA partners can use to really help ensure that people with disabilities are gaining access to training and education and credentialing and apprenticeship. You know, to reach their career pathways. So I encourage you to check that out. So with that, I want to turn it to two state representatives we have here today to share their experiences with the 188 guide and strategies that have been impactful in their states and in their local regions. First I'll introduce Paige Easton. She is the workforce program coordinator for the Iowa Workforce Development. We'll also be talking to Cory Schmid. He is the Disability Employment Initiative project lead in the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development. And I'm going to put this question out to both of them and perhaps Paige, we can start with you. But I'm going to ask you both if you can tell us about some of the initiatives in your state that promote equal access and opportunity? And how do you think the guide has supported that work? Paige?

>> Great, than you so much. Well, I would say with the passage of WIOA, the structure of the State Workforce Development Board changed. And this created an opportunity to establish some standing committees. So in Iowa, the State Workforce Development Board established four standing committees which were codified to provide some structure to the work around engaging various populations. So these four committees are youth-focused, one on disability access, one focused on serving returning citizens and one on minority outreach. The disability access committee has been the one I am most heavily involved with. And we've started this about two years ago. I'll just kind of highlight some of the work that we've done. We started by forming a state disability access standing committee and this really leads the work of the local areas. So in each region we've replicated the committee structure with local disability access committees reporting up to the local workforce development board. And the members are comprised of core and required WIOA partners. And similar to what Jamie described with Virginia's initiative, VR has been a key partner and a leader. They're actually the members that are chairing these committees at the local and state level. And these committees also include policy and program people. So we formed these committees and then we started to address physical accessibility. And completing an assessment of every American Job Center and creating a corresponding transition plan for barrier removal. So to date we've removed 60% of the barriers that were identified, and we're working on continuing to make everything fully accessible from a physical standpoint. And I will second that it is much easier to go into physical accessibility on the front end, looking at is this space accessible? Then having to wait until you have some leverage when your lease comes up to try to get those changes. But we've done a good job I think of identifying the barriers and working with the landlords and our partners at the state level to improve accessibility. Each of the local committees also conducted a focus group of individuals with a range of disabilities who gather customer input which is so important. And we asked them to think about things like the location of the AJC, their ease of access, customer service and additional needs that they might have around employment services and support. We surveyed all of the field staff in our AJC's to gauge their comfort level in serving customers with a range of disabilities. And that feedback was really helpful in identifying training opportunities that we need to implement. Our local committees also completed a self-assessment on the accommodations available in their areas, in their AJC's and also how comfortable they are with providing different accommodations. So we asked them about specific accommodations that could be provided to a customer in a variety of categories like effective communication and those kind of things. And then also asked them if they were comfortable providing them. We've developed a disability-specific training curriculum for our AJC staff and partners. And currently our local committees are working on an integration continuum activity using tools that were developed by WInTAC. So all of these initiatives and all of the communication that as disseminated from the state committee down to the local committees has the same branding so it's easily recognizable. When we first started, we engaged the leaders from the four core WIOA partner agencies, which really helped send out the message to the local committees that this work is important and it's necessary. We made a video featuring the directors of those core partner agencies which can be found on the website listed on the next slide here. This was a really good way to kick off the work of the committees and to get people fired up and get excited about what we're doing. And then I guess as far as how we've used the guide, basically every step of the way it's been just a super helpful resource that we've kind of worked our way through and are still continuing to work through. But we used it to first help identify our priority areas. So we were able to easily identify areas where we were excelling, and then other areas, lots of areas where we needed significant work. And so we just decided to kind of work through the whole guide but to set priorities that made sense for us. So for example, we decided it was important to first address physical accessibility because we wanted to ensure that people could get in to receive services, and also because those changes tend to take longer to achieve. And so we tackled that first and then started to look at programmatic access. So while we've been working through the guide for nearly two years, we still have quite a few things that we are looking forward to accomplishing. And this guide and the revised version will continue to be a really great resource for us.

>> Great, Paige. Wow, thank you for all those strategies. I'm writing them down. I really like the branding of the committee to kind of boost it, you know, give it some power in the state. I really like that. And using the guide as a self-assessment of where you're at, you know, where you're at, where's your priority areas, where's your strengths and weaknesses? Thank you for that. Cory, let me turn it to you, and I'll remind you of the question here. Can you tell us about some of the initiatives in your state that promote equal access and opportunity? And how do you think the guide has supported this work?

>> Yeah, absolutely. Thank you, Jamie. Minnesota is fortunate enough to receive a Disability Employment Initiative grant. I believe Chris mentioned that earlier in this webinar, and that's funded through the Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration and Office of Disability Employment Policy. And so we received a round-seven grant. It is a youth-focused grant. And the three workforce development areas that are participating in this project are also rural-focused which is a big deal for us here in Minnesota as that is where we see a lot of our disparities, between the urban and rural areas. And those disparities are much more common for individuals with disabilities, especially youth. So one of the strategies that was developed under the round seven GEI project was by one of the WDA's, Central Minnesota Jobs and Training Services. So they developed a training curriculum because their employment counsellors, they were hearing that they needed training on working with youth with disabilities and individuals with disabilities. And so to do that, they developed this training based on the needs of the counsellors. And I believe there's a slide with a link to our training, if we could go forward to that. So I encourage all of you to look at that. So the second bullet there, Minnesota disability resource coordinator training. This training has five modules to it. The first one is compliance with section 188, a very relevant topic for today. The second is building knowledge and comfort around disability. Policies to practice is the third module. Fourth is serving people with multiple resource needs. And finally, the fifth module is serving youths with disabilities, because we know there are specific issues that come up for youths with disabilities. CMJTS, the WDA under our project, has trained all of their staff, including HR, accounting and leadership teams with this. So everyone has gained a better grasp of how to best work with individuals with disabilities. They have also had the opportunity to cross-train other workforce development areas in the state on these topics because we've seen statewide the need for training and working with individuals with disabilities is very prevalent and much needed. And so we are thrilled that CMJTS is able to develop this, and some of the pieces they pulled into this training come from the section 188 guide. So there are a lot of elements there, so for example, on page 22 of the section 188 guide it talks about integrated resource teams. That is a huge component of this, especially when working with youth with disabilities. And really there are a number of strategies that are included. So I'd encourage you all to take a look at the training strategy and use it as you can in your own space. And look at those training pieces within here to meet the needs of your staff. So with that, I'll turn it back over to you, Jamie.

>> Yeah, great. And you know, I had the opportunity to work with you all in Minnesota. And I think a good lesson learned is you all really came to the table where you're looking to develop your training strategy. But you knew your top three priority areas. And I think it's a great lesson for everybody out there, if you're thinking, "Well, there's so much," overwhelmed, where do you start with a training curriculum, with a training program. Or even just, where do you start? And I thought that was a great -- you knew where your top three areas were that you wanted to focus on. Okay, let's turn to the next question I'll ask you both. Can you share some of the strategies that your state has found particularly impactful from the reference guide? And could you tell us, could you share if you know, what section of the guide we can find those? And also if your state has been maybe innovative and taken it to another level in implementing that strategy to boost accessibility and employment. And Paige, I'm going to go back to you for that question.

>> Sure. An area of improvement that I was excited to tackle when I first started this job about ten months ago was around providing accommodation. And section 2.2 and 2.3 I believe it is, it focuses on the provision of reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities. So this section is really detailed and was really helpful for me as I was drafting our agency policies. One of the things that I really appreciated about the guide is that it wasn't just emphasizing the need to have policy, because essentially that's just words on a paper that people can choose or not choose to read. But it was also providing ideas and ways to create processes associated with those policies and really emphasizes the need for consistent training so that our staff know the policies but they're also comfortable providing the accommodations. And also so our customers know how to access them. So just to give you an example, we have a shortage of sign language interpreters in Iowa, and it was very difficult to get them scheduled to provide good, timely services to customers who needed a sign language interpreter. And so we procured video remote interpreting to help provide on-demand services when someone walks in. Of course they can still request a sign language interpreter, but it made it a lot easier to kind of meet their basic needs when they walked in if they weren't scheduled for an appointment. But we also knew that we needed to train our staff so they were comfortable using this technology. And so we have a policy in place about it. We have processes for how to provide it. And then we also created a short five-minute training video that shows exactly from pulling up this app and how to turn it on, how to use it, some etiquette practices for using it, where to position it, those types of things. So we established these policies and processes and did some training. And then we're also implementing some tracking tools that will allow us to identify trends in the types of accommodations that are requested in our AJC's so that we can make more proactive decisions and better anticipate the needs of the customers. And then there is one section of the guide that talks about setting benchmarks, prescribing a certain percentage increase in the enrollment of customers with disclosed disabilities in career and training services within a given time. And so with the implementation of our new case management system here in Iowa, we'll begin tracking this for various programs. But one specific example of how we have utilized this to set benchmarks and track this is through leveraging the Ticket to Work program and Partnership Plus as a way to increase partnerships. So last fall we held a contest and we rewarded the local area with the highest percentage increase in new ticket assignments during the first quarter of that program year. So the winning office earned five jeans days which is huge. They get really excited about being able to wear jeans. And they also got a pizza party. So it sounds like kind of a small contest, but it actually resulted in assigning more tickets in that one single quarter than we had for the entire previous program year. So by setting benchmarks and tracking these data elements, we were able to not only identify areas that were needing improvement but also find ways to celebrate success. I kind of feel like we spent a lot of time monitoring and it was very refreshing to be able to celebrate the hard work of the local staff and focus on what they were really doing well.

>> Wow, great examples. I love the jeans days. But I also love that if your leadership is allowing that, it shows their commitment to it too. So that's great. And great example of the remote interpreting. I mean, a lot of states are challenged by this. And so you know, partnering with some of your deaf agencies or your deaf community to get that going, remote interpreting on-demand, that's incredible, really great work. Cory, let me turn to you, same question. Can you share some of the strategies that your state has found particularly impactful in the guide? And how have you maybe been more innovative on that from there?

>> Yeah, absolutely. So section 1.8.5 in the section 188 guide, I believe it's pages 26-28, is the part I'll be talking about. And so we primarily focused on the guideposts for success. So if you're not familiar with the guideposts to success, there's a link there included on the slide. The guideposts for success were developed by the National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability for Youth. And they provide five guideposts that outline activities that all youth, including youth with disabilities, should participate in in order to be set up for success as they transition into full-time employment. So the five guideposts are school preparation, youth development and leadership, career preparation, connecting activities, and family involvement. The guideposts create a great theoretical framework for employment counsellors around those topics. And the difficult part, the challenge with these is it's hard to take that theoretical framework and implement it in our programs. So what we did again under our disability employment initiative project was track the activities that youth are participating in under the guideposts. So in turn, our employment counsellors that are working directly with youth with disabilities, they can use it as a way, almost like a checklist if you will to identify which areas that that youth in particular might need a little extra support. So maybe it's around career preparation, so for a youth who has not had a job before, it may be apparent to them on encounter that, "Hey, we need to figure out how we can get them into a work experience opportunity, and how that plays into the youth's life as they transition, right? So that's where we've done that. And I believe that is a prime example of where Minnesota has taken this part of the section 188 guide and kind of run with it. Because we don't see that very frequently, but we're excited about that, and the DEI project does not end until next March, so we will be watching that as it continues on here. So I will turn that back over to you, Jamie.

>> Great, thanks, Cory. It's exciting to hear what you're doing with guideposts. I mean, it's such a staple, right? So we'll have to follow up with you.

>> Yeah.

>> The last question I have for you both is that in reviewing the updated version of the guide, what strategies do you think might be implemented or could support your work going forward that target accessibility and employment outcomes for people with disabilities? And also, how do you think other states can use the updated guide in their programs and with their partners? I'll go back to Paige.

>> Okay. So in Iowa, and I'm guessing probably in a lot of states, there is a lot of opportunity to incorporate the guide into AJC certification. And so particularly in Iowa we're undergoing some structural changes. And I am really hopeful that our state workforce development board, our local chief elected officials and our local boards will absorb this guide and help create quality AJC certification indicators and use those criteria outlined in the guide to make sure that not just our disability access committees but everybody is on board with this and continually re-evaluating that. We also are planning to implement some short guides for our AJC staff. So just like really kind of 1-2 pages in length on topics like ensuring effective communication. And when someone brings a service animal into an AJC, how do you respond? What's the proper etiquette? Just kind of those short, quick guides that they can reference. And then I have plans to incorporate the information in the guide to revise our complaint process and procedures, just making it more customer-friendly, more accessible. And then we recently sent out a customer satisfaction survey to all of our customers who identified themselves as having a disability. And I want to use that as a baseline to measure the effectiveness of future initiatives and also help us identify areas for continued staff training. So my intention is that we'll be practicing and implementing all of the elements and best practices included in the guide at some point. And then not being done when we get to that finish line, but really going back and re-evaluating, reassessing how we're doing on an ongoing basis. And implementing changes so that as we learn more about the needs of our customers and there's new technology available, that those get rolled into the work that we're doing. And hopefully we can keep providing promising practices and borrowing from other states as they're going through this.

>> Okay, yep. Great, thank you. Cory, same question. What do you think could be implemented or support your work moving forward?

>> Yeah, so the pieces in the section 188 guide that talk about expanding partnerships in order to support individuals with disabilities is definitely a high priority for us. All three of our WDA's for the DEI project are employment networks. And so they are expanding their Ticket to Work programs which has opened up wonderful opportunities for co-enrollment with local counties, our TANF counsellors, et cetera. So we are really bringing in more partners that way and we want to continue to do that and expand that across our state, not just in the disability employment initiative project. And I believe there's a couple of pages where Ticket to work is mentioned in the section 188 guide. And I would highly recommend other states considering that to really look at becoming employment networks. It really has opened up doors for people here in Minnesota. And that's I guess primarily where we'll be putting most of our efforts, is expanding those partnerships.

>> Excellent. Well, thank you both so much for sharing, both of you, numerous strategies, lots of ways to use the guide moving forward. And thank you both so much for all of your work that you're doing. We'll have to really follow up with you guys in a little bit and learn more from you. So thank you for that. And I'm going to turn it back to Rebecca.

>> Thanks so much, Jamie and Cory and Paige. And again, just wonderful wealth of information through the work that you've done in your own states. And Jamie, that you've done in a number of states. So we are now up to the questions part of the presentation. And I just wanted to respond to a few quickly. The PowerPoint slides are already on the LEAD center website, so if you go to LEADCenter.org and just on the homepage where this webinar is listed, if you click on that it will take you to that page. All of the links are live, so a link to the updated 188 guide to the Missouri brief that Jamie talked about, all those links for the Minnesota resources and the Iowa video are all there. In a little more than a week we will post recording of this webinar if you want to share it with other people, and also a transcript. So if you wanted to go back and review some of the practices that people discussed, that will all be available. If you're not getting emails from the LEAD Center, you can go to LEADCenter.org and sign up so that when the Virginia brief comes out, you'll get an email letting you know that that's available. We wanted to make sure that you also knew a little about the guide itself. So as Lee discussed, it's divided into two sections. The guide really is very chock full of information, but it's set up to be pretty user-friendly so that there is a table of contents that breaks it down into all of the areas that were discussed today and more. And if you click on any of those links in the table of contents, it will take you directly to that section. And within the first section of promising practices, there's a place in each section that will link you to the regulations that relate to that. So you know, I just opened it up at random to effectively communicate with individuals with disabilities and it says right in the beginning descriptions of and links to the text of the regulations requiring effective communications with individuals with disabilities are included in part two of the reference guide. And there's a link there. So again, all you have to do if that's what you're interested in, is you would have the promising practices right there if you want to see what the regulations say. You can click on it there. And similarly, in the regulations part of the guide, if you're looking at regulations and you wonder how other places are implementing that regulation, for each section it's -- I just opened to reasonable modifications. It says examples of promising practices related to the provision of reasonable modifications of policies, practices and procedures are included in part one of the reference guide. And if you click on the link that says reasonable modifications, it will take you back to the promising practices. So although there's an enormous amount of information, it's really set up in a way so that you can go to the area in which you're most interested and find information both about promising practices and what the regulations say in both of those areas. So we think that it's a guide that you will find useful and not find overwhelming in terms of the information that's provided. So let's go to some of the questions that were posted. There is a question, Lee and David, asking if you would talk a little more about the difference between programmatic and program accessibility and what the distinction is.

>> Sure. This is Lee. So the distinction is the term programmatic accessibility was a term that was coined in the 2005 Senate version of WIOA before it eventually passed many years later. And it was meant to be a catch-all phrase for the main concepts that were not related to physical accessibility. So it covers reasonable accommodations, it covers reasonable modifications of policies, practices and procedures. It covers effective communications. It covers most integrated setting appropriate. And the specific language about what programmatic accessibility is is located both in the definition section of the regulations which is 38.4 and also in the specific section regarding accessibility, which is 38.13B. So that's what programmatic accessibility is. Program accessibility is an old term that dates all the way back to section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act back in the '70's. And what it meant was that in that context, for existing buildings -- and it covers Title II of the ADA. And under 504 it covers recipients of federal funds which are often state and local governments. And the idea was that existing buildings in cities and towns did note each one of them have to be retrofitted to be physically accessible. Rather, when you looked at all of the buildings and the services and activities as a whole, that they were accessible to individuals with disabilities. What that means as a practical matter is let's say the courthouse was not accessible, or the office where somebody would go to apply for title services or paying their taxes in the city or town was not accessible. Or where somebody would go to receive social services was not accessible. Well, then the city or town, rather than making the building accessible by retrofitting it, they could move the services to a place that was accessible for the person with a disability. For example, they could move to an accessible location. Or they could figure out another way to provide this service to the individual with a disability by bringing it to them at their home or meeting them at another location. It all revolved around that particular issue. And what happened was that under the ADA, entities that -- ADA sort of drew a line in the sand that said that after a particular date with respect to buildings that have been altered or that are new construction, everything, every aspect of them need to be accessible to people with disabilities according to the applicable federal accessibility standards. In some cases, those ADA standards for accessible design. In the old days it was what was called EFAs. You know, whatever the standard is that applied once an entity underwent alterations or new construction, then everything needed to be accessible. So it split the world into things that were old and things that were new. And the new started for the most part under Title II of the ADA after January of 1992. So it's really an older concept about how you provide accessibility and to what extent in most cases state and local government entities were required to retrofit existing facilities.

>> Thank you, Lee. You know, a lot of the questions are very specific and I really think that people will find the answers to the questions in the guide. There are questions about disclosure and storage of information and communication and things like that. And we're just about out of time. We would encourage you to reach out to the presenters. You'll have contact information for them if there's something specific that you don't find. We just want to let people know that last week the LEAD Center was able to introduce an inclusive career pathways roadmap, and here is a link to it and a picture of it. So that now when you go to the LEAD Center website, there's this new green button that says road to inclusive career pathways. And there's information on implementation science which Jamie talked about, information for where you can get technical assistance. And then lots of information on how you can work with partners and individually to make programs more accessible. So there's examples and resources and actions that you can take in a number of areas. So we thought that that was relevant to this discussion, just another resource that we encourage you to just scroll around on. And you'll find it at LEADCenter.org. And these are all the ways that you can connect with the LEAD Center. I really want to thank Lee and David and Cory and Paige and Jamie for just a fabulous amount of information. Chris, did you want to say any closing comments?

>> Rebecca, yes. I want to second what you've just said in terms of all of our presenters. You guys are just amazing. The information you provide is so helpful in translating kind of the information that's in the law and the regulations into the real-world. And I just feel like that's something that our LEAD Center has been so amazing at doing during all the years that we've had the benefit of working collaboratively with you. And I want to thank you especially for that. And just listening to the deep body of information that you have researched and pulled together with all of your work in the states, it's just really phenomenal. So thank you to everyone, and especially to our LEAD Center staff.