58942 Federal Register / Vol. 70, No. 194 / Friday, October 7, 2005 / Notices 

DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND 

URBAN DEVELOPMENT 

[Docket No. FR–4994–N–02; HUD–2005– 

0020] 

HUD’s Draft Section 504 SelfEvaluation Report on HUD-Conducted 

Programs and Activities; Reopening of 

Comment Period 

AGENCY: Office of the Assistant 

Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal 

Opportunity, HUD. 

ACTION: Notice; Reopening of Comment 

Period. 

SUMMARY: On June 22, 2005, HUD 

published a notice in the Federal 

Register soliciting comments on its draft 

section 504 self-evaluation report of 

HUD-conducted programs, activities, 

and regional office facilities. The draft 

report was prepared consistent with 

HUD’s responsibilities under section 

504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as 

amended, and under HUD’s 

implementing regulations. The public 

comment period closed on July 22, 

2005. HUD has received numerous 

requests to re-open the period for public 

comment. This notice announces the 

reopening of the public comment period 

on the section 504 draft self-evaluation 

report. 

DATES: Comment Due Date: November 7, 

2005 

ADDRESSES: Interested persons are 

invited to submit comments regarding 

this notice to the Regulations Division, 

Office of General Counsel, Department 

of Housing and Urban Development, 

451 Seventh Street, SW., Room 10276, 

Washington, DC 20410–0500. Electronic 

comments may be submitted through 

either: 

• The Federal eRulemaking Portal: at 

http://www.regulations.gov; or 

• The HUD electronic Web site at: 

http://www.epa.gov/feddocket. Follow 

the link entitled ‘‘View Open HUD 

Dockets.’’ Commenters should follow 

the instructions provided on that site to 

submit comments electronically. 

Facsimile (FAX) comments are not 

acceptable. In all cases, communications 

must refer to the docket number and 

title. 

All comments and communications 

submitted will be available, without 

charge, for public inspection and 

copying between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. 

weekdays at the above address. Due to 

security measures at the HUD 

Headquarters building, please schedule 

an appointment to review the public 

comments by calling the Regulations 

Division at (202) 708–3055 (this is not 

a toll-free number). Copies of the public 

comments are also available for 

inspection and downloading at http:// 

www.epa.gov/feddocket. 

Oral Comments: Persons desiring to 

provide oral comments may call (202) 

708–9410 and leave comments on voice 

mail. For individuals who are hearing or 

speech impaired and who use a TTY, 

oral comments may be submitted by 

calling (202) 401–1247. Please note that 

these numbers are not toll free. 

Summaries of the oral comments and 

the TTY transcripts will be available, 

without charge, for inspection and 

copying between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. 

weekdays at the above address. Due to 

security measures at the HUD 

Headquarters building, please schedule 

an appointment to review the public 

comments by calling the Regulations 

Division at (202) 708–3055 (this is not 

a toll-free number). The telephone 

numbers for oral comments will be in 

operation throughout the comment 

period and will be disconnected at the 

close of the public comment period. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Milton Turner, Director, Compliance 

and Disability Rights Division, Office of 

Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, 

Department of Housing and Urban 

Development, 451 Seventh Street, SW., 

Room 5240, Washington, DC 20410– 

2000; telephone (202) 708–2333, 

extension 7057 (this is not a toll free 

number). Hearing or speech-impaired 

individuals may access this number via 

TTY by calling the toll-free Federal 

Information Relay Service at 1–800– 

877–8339. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: HUD 

recently conducted a self-evaluation of 

its regional office facilities and its 

policies and practices consistent with 

HUD’s responsibilities under section 

504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29 

U.S.C. 794) (Section 504). The objective 

of the self-evaluation was two-fold: (1) 

To determine whether current HUD 

policies and practices (including 

regulations, handbooks, notices, and 

other written guidance) discriminate, or 

have the effect of discriminating, on the 

basis of disability; and (2) to determine 

if HUD facilities are accessible to 

persons with disabilities. The types of 

disability discrimination the selfevaluation sought to disclose included 

those situations where: 

1. Otherwise qualified persons are 

excluded from participation in, or 

denied benefits of, HUD programs and 

activities on the basis of disability; 

2. HUD policies that, although neutral 

on their face, in operation limit the 

ability of persons with disabilities to 

benefit from program opportunities (e.g., 

requiring a person to make a written 

request for information on HUD’s 

assisted housing programs); and 

3. Separate or different benefits or 

services are provided to persons on the 

basis of disability where such action is 

not required to provide a benefit or 

service as effective as those provided to 

others (e.g., holding a separate training 

program for persons with hearing 

impairments is discriminatory when the 

training can be effectively held in an 

integrated setting with the provision of 

interpreters). 

HUD prepared a draft report 

presenting the results of its section 504 

self-evaluation. The draft report, located 

at http://www.hud.gov/offices/fheo/ 

disabilities/index.cfm, discusses the 

methodology HUD used to conduct the 

self-evaluation and contains 

recommendations for addressing 

identified barriers. 

On June 22, 2005 (70 FR 36318), HUD 

published a Federal Register notice 

seeking public comment on this draft 

report. Following publication of the 

notice, many interested parties, who, 

citing the complexity of the report and 

the difficulty of evaluating and 

commenting on the report within 30 

days, sought an extension of the 30-day 

comment period. HUD understands the 

complexity of the report and the 

difficulty of evaluating the report; 

therefore, in order to give all interested 

persons sufficient time to submit 

comments, HUD is reopening the public 

comment period for comments on 

HUD’s draft self-evaluation report. 

Additionally, HUD is now accepting 

both oral and written comments on the 

section 504 draft report. HUD will issue 

a final self-evaluation report after 

consideration of all public comments 

received on the section 504 draft report. 

A number of interested parties 

commented that the draft report on the 

HUD Web page did not contain 

Appendix 3, which were the blank 

worksheets that were completed 

internally by HUD Program Offices and 

Divisions. While the Department 

referenced Appendix 3 in the text of the 

draft report, it did not originally release 

the checklists because they were just 

one of several processes that were used 

to develop the final draft report. Since 

there is interest in the release of the 

blank worksheets contained in 

Appendix 3, they have been included in 

the draft Section 504 report posted on 

the HUD Web page. 

In addition to those comments, both 

oral and written, that HUD will receive 

between today’s date and November 7, 

2005, all comments that were 

postmarked on or before July 22, 2005 

(the original due date for public 

comments) will be considered in the 

Federal Register / Vol. 70, No. 194 / Friday, October 7, 2005 / Notices 58943 

development of the final HUD section 

504 self-evaluation report on HUDconducted programs and activities. 

Dated: September 29, 2005. 

Floyd O. May, 

General Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fair 

Housing and Equal Opportunity. 

[FR Doc. 05–20151 Filed 10–6–05; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4210–28–P