Equal Opportunity/Reasonable Accommodation Statement and Offering Materials in Alternate Formats

Sample Statement:

Please call (517) 335-4295 to request accommodation or to obtain materials in an alternate format. The Michigan Community Service Commission is firmly committed to providing access, equal opportunity, and reasonable accommodation in its programs, activities, and materials.

An Equal Opportunity/Reasonable Accommodation statement promotes your agency as an organization that includes all citizens in your activities and programs while letting people know that your materials are available in alternate formats.

A few ideas of items that should include an EO/RA statement:

• Brochures
• Event materials
• Applications and application guidelines
• Materials for meetings/events
• Training materials
• All event registration materials
• Email announcements
• Faxes
• Newsletters
• New publications

Alternate formats include:

• Large print
  • To put a document into a large print format, print on white or buff-colored paper, normal type only (no italics, limited use of bold type), 18-point Times New Roman font, unless recipient requests otherwise (ask).
• Braille
• Audio Tape
• Files on disk (or as email attachments)
  • This format is useful for people who use screen-enlargement or screen-reading programs
  • Keep the format simple, avoid tabs whenever possible
  • Avoid tables, they can be problematic for screen-reading programs