If mediation does not prove to be satisfactory, a person can still file a formal complaint with the proper agency or seek other legal remedies. These are all flexible concepts that invite the kind of creativity and individualized solutions offered by the mediation process. Negotiations should not be over whether a business or organization needs to comply. Covered entities must comply with the ADA and may not discriminate. Rather, the negotiations should be over how best to comply given the situation at hand, the needs of the protected person, and the resources of the affected business or organization.
Mediators are volunteers trained through Michigan's network of community dispute resolution centers.
The centers are funded through the Community Dispute Resolution Program which was created in 1988 to afford Michigan citizens an alternative to the adversarial court environment for the resolution of many types of disputes. The centers provide training approved by the Michigan Supreme Court's State Court Admin-istrative Office, which also administers the Community Dispute Resolution Program. In addition to the special training the mediators receive on the ADA, there may be times when more technical information is necessary. The impartial expert could be someone who does not act as an advocate during the mediation, but acts to provide information about the ADA to either party. The impartial expert may be called upon to help the parties explore technologies associated with a particular reasonable accommodation, or an aspect of readily achievable barrier removal, for example.