BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 410
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Date of Hearing: April 26, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON BUSINESS, PROFESSIONS AND CONSUMER
PROTECTION
Mary Hayashi, Chair
AB 410 (Swanson) - As Introduced: February 14, 2011
SUBJECT : Regulations: adoption: disability access.
SUMMARY : Requires an agency to provide a narrative description
of proposed regulations to persons with visual disabilities upon
request, and to provide the requester with an extended public
comment period, as specified. Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires an agency when submitting a notice of proposed
adoption, amendment, or repeal of a regulation to the Office
of Administrative Law (OAL) to include a statement that the
agency shall provide, upon request, a description of the
proposed changes included in the proposed action, in a manner
to accommodate a person with a visual or other disability for
which effective communication is required under state or
federal law and that in doing so may require extending the
period of public comment for the proposed action.
2)Requires an agency, upon request from a person with a visual
disability or other disability for which effective
communication is required under state or federal law, to
provide that person a narrative description of the additions
to and deletions from the California Code of Regulations (CCR)
or other publication.
3)Provides that the narrative description:
a) Identify each addition to or deletion from CCR by
reference to the subdivision, paragraph, subparagraph,
clause or subclause within the proposed regulation
containing the addition or deletion; and,
b) Provide the express language proposed to be added to or
deleted from CCR or other publication and any portion of
the surrounding language necessary to understand the change
in a manner that allows for accurate translation by reading
software used by the visually impaired.
4)Requires the agency to provide the narrative description
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within 10 days, unless the agency determines that it would be
impractical and notifies the requester of the date on which
the narrative description will be provided.
5)Requires an agency to provide the requester at least 45 days
from the date upon which the narrative description was
provided to submit a public comment regarding the proposed
regulation, regardless of any other existing law.
6)Prohibits the agency from taking final action to adopt the
regulation until the requester has submitted a public comment
or the extended 45-day comment has period expired, whichever
occurs first.
7)Makes legislative findings and declarations.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Prohibits the exclusion of a qualified individual with a
disability, by reason of that disability, from participation
in or equal access to the benefits of the services, programs,
or activities of a public entity, or to be subjected to
discrimination by a public entity, under state and federal
law.
2)Requires a public entity to take appropriate steps to ensure
that communications with participants and members of the
public with disabilities are as effective as communications
with others, under federal regulations, and also requires a
public entity to furnish appropriate auxiliary aids and
services where necessary to afford an individual with a
disability an equal opportunity to participate in, and enjoy
the benefits of, a service, program, or activity conducted by
a public entity.
3)Governs the procedure for the adoption, amendment, or repeal
of regulations by state agencies and for the review of those
regulatory actions by OAL, under the Administrative Procedure
Act (APA).
4)Requires an agency to publish a notice of proposed action that
includes specified information, at least 45 days prior to a
hearing and the close of the public comment period.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
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COMMENTS :
Purpose of this bill . According to the author's office, "State
and federal law prohibit the exclusion of persons with
disabilities, including visual impairment, from participation or
equal access to the benefits of services, programs, or
activities of a public entity. Federal regulations specifically
require a public entity to ensure that their communications with
persons with disabilities are as effective as their
communications with non-disabled persons.
"Notwithstanding these important protections provided in state
and federal law, visually impaired persons do not have equal
access to the regulations issued by state agencies. When a
government agency releases notices of regulatory changes, the
notice is in a format that visually impaired persons are unable
to decipher.
"AB 410 fixes this issue by requiring state agencies to provide
their notices to visually impaired persons, upon request, in a
format that can be accurately interpreted by reading software
for the blind.
"This bill prescribes a format that an agency may use to
describe the regulatory material for the purpose of providing
visually impaired persons equal access to this important public
information."
Background . The APA governs the adoption of regulations by
state agencies for purposes of ensuring that they are clear,
necessary, legally valid, and available to the public. In
seeking adoption of a proposed regulation, state agencies must
comply with procedural requirements that include publishing the
proposed regulation along with supporting statement of reasons;
mailing and publishing a notice of the proposed action 45 days
before a hearing or before the close of the public comment
period; and, submitting a final statement to OAL that summarizes
and responds to all objections, recommendations and proposed
alternatives that were raised during the public comment period.
The OAL is then required to approve or reject the proposed
regulation within 30 days.
This bill is similar to AB 1787 (Swanson) of 2010, which also
required agencies to include a narrative description of
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additions and deletions made to CCR for the visually impaired.
However, this bill is narrowed in focus by only requiring
agencies to comply with the new requirement upon request.
Support . The California Council of the Blind writes in support,
"The state's current practice of using typographic variations in
its published notices of proposed regulations to indicate
modifications in regulatory language, italic type for changed
text and strike out type for deleted text, makes it extremely
difficult for those of us who are blind to know the nature of
such changes because we cannot distinguish italic or strike out
text from the rest of the language in these documents. AB 410
would give visually impaired and blind Californians equal access
to the information about regulatory changes contained in these
notices by requiring that, upon request, narrative text would be
included along with the current typographic notation to identify
the changed language. The federal government already uses
narrative text to identify changed language in the Federal
Register, and California would do well to adopt this practice."
Previous legislation . AB 1787 (Swanson) of 2010, requires
agencies to include a narrative description of additions and
deletions made to CCR for the visually impaired. This bill was
held in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California Council of the Blind (sponsor)
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Rebecca May / B.,P. & C.P. / (916)
319-3301