Americans with Disabilities Act Notice

In accordance with the requirements of Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the City of Morgantown (“City”) will not discriminate against qualified individuals with disabilities on the basis of disability in the provision of the city’s services, programs, or activities.

 Employment: The City is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of disability in its hiring or employment practices. The City complies with all regulations promulgated by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission under Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Americans with Disabilities Amendments Act (ADAAA).

 Effective Communication: The City will generally, upon request, provide appropriate aids and services leading to effective communication for qualified persons with disabilities so they can participate equally in the city’s programs, services, and activities, including qualified sign language interpreters, documents in braille, and other ways of making information and communications accessible to people who have speech, hearing, or vision impairments.

 Modifications to Policies and Procedures:  The city will make all reasonable modifications to policies and programs to ensure that people with disabilities have an equal opportunity to enjoy all city programs, services, and activities. For example, individuals with service animals are welcomed in city offices, even where pets are generally prohibited, as long as the animal does not create a legitimate safety risk or fundamentally alter the nature of the city’s services.

 Anyone who requires an auxiliary aid or service for effective communication, or a modification of policies or procedures to participate in a city program, service, or activity, should contact the office of the ADA coordinator, City Clerk Christine Wade, as soon as possible but no later than 48 hours before the scheduled event.

 The ADA does not require the city to take any action that would fundamentally alter the nature of its programs or services or impose an undue financial or administrative burden.

 Complaint/Grievance Procedure:  Complaints that a city program, service, or activity is not accessible to persons with disabilities should be directed to the ADA Coordinator:

City Clerk
c/o Christine Wade
430 Spruce Street
Morgantown, WV 26505
Phone: (304) 284-7439
Email: cwade@morgantownwv.gov

Forms on which to file your complaint will be provided or, if necessary, your complaint will be heard verbally. A record of your complaint and the action taken will be maintained in a special complaint file in the ADA coordinator’s office. A decision concerning any ADA grievance will be considered by the designated ADA coordinator within 15 business days of being filed.

The city will not place a surcharge on a particular individual with a disability or any group of individuals with disabilities to cover the cost of providing auxiliary aids/services or reasonable modifications of policy, such as retrieving items from locations that are open to the public but are not accessible to persons who use wheelchairs.

Contact and Posting:   Contact information for the ADA Coordinator is to be provided to interested individuals, including the name, office address, email address, and telephone number. We also provide this information in a public space, in a location where it can be readily seen by individuals seeking the city’s services and on the city’s public website, in an easily accessible location.  The City of Morgantown will place our Americans with Disabilities Act Notice in City Hall, each administrative office building of the city, and on our website.

ADA Grievance Procedure

Any person who believes that they or a specific class of individuals has been subjected to discrimination on the basis of a disability by the City may submit a complaint in writing by completing the ADA Complaint Form, which will be provided to you or to someone on your behalf by request.  If the person submitting the complaint is unable to do so in writing, the complaint may be submitted verbally to the ADA Coordinator. A complaint must be filed not later than 180 days from the date of the alleged discrimination, unless the time for filing is extended by the City for good cause shown. Once completed, the ADA Complaint form should be given to the ADA Coordinator for investigation and resolution.

1. The ADA Coordinator should meet with the complainant and try to provide a decision within fifteen (15) business days of the complaint being filed.  For purposes of this procedure, business days shall mean the days not defined as legal holiday by W. Va. Code § 2-2-1, and the period calculated will exclude the day the complaint is filed.
2. If the complaint cannot be resolved to the satisfaction of the complainant by the ADA Coordinator, it will be forwarded to the City Manager.  The City Manager will review the complaint, meet with the complainant, and try to provide a decision within fifteen (15) business days of the date of the ADA Coordinator’s decision.  The City Manager’s decision is the final decision of the City.
3. A record of the action taken on each request or complaint will be maintained as part of the records or minutes at each level of the grievance process, and such records will be maintained by the City Clerk.

Website Accessibility

If you use assistive technology (such as a Braille reader, or a screen reader) and the format of any material on this website interferes with your ability to access information, please contact the ADA Coordinator (listed above). To enable us to respond in a manner most helpful to you, please indicate the nature of your accessibility problem, the preferred format in which to receive the material, the web address of the requested material, and your contact information.

Accessibility Design Guidelines

Our website has been designed with the following accessibility guidelines in mind:

• We work to comply with Section 508 as well as WCAG 2.0 A and AA referring to website accessibility standards.
• If you have difficulty accessing the site or have any comments or feedback, please do not hesitate to contact the ADA Coordinator.

Browser Accessibility Information

Many popular browsers contain built-in accessibility tools.

• Chrome Accessibility Information
• Firefox Accessibility Information
• Microsoft Edge Accessibility Information
• Safari Accessibility Information

Additional Plug-ins

Adobe Reader is required to view and print PDF documents that appear on this website.

• To download this program for free, visit the Adobe website.
• To read PDF documents with a screen reader, please visit the Adobe Reader Accessibility website which provides useful tools and resources.

Supported Assistive Technology

• Latest Version of JAWS for Windows
• Latest Version of NVDA for Windows
• Latest Version of VoiceOver for Mac OS X
• Keyboard-Only Navigation