NOTE: As required in federal and state laws, any mental health provider is responsible for setting up, coordinating, and paying for a reasonable accommodation that an individual requests. Refer to your agency's policy and procedure for more details.
Specifically, the Illinois Division of Mental Health requires their funded community agencies to provide reasonable accommodations to consumers with hearing loss*. This includes communication accessibility.
Additionally, Sections I and II of the IDHS Community Services Agreement references its purpose as to "improve access to culturally competent programs, services, and activities for persons who are Hard of Hearing or Deaf… by ensuring language access by providing language assistance services, including interpreter services at no cost to each customer at key points of contact, in a timely manner."
Reasonable accommodations can include an ASL and/or deaf interpreters; tactile signing; printed materials in large-print; FM system or personal amplifier; Communication Access RealTime Translation (CART), etc.
