Access Authority

The disAbility Law Center of Virginia (dLCV) is a nonprofit organization authorized under federal and state law to advocate for and protect the rights of individuals with disabilities.

Federal law provides that dLCV staff must have reasonable unaccompanied access to facilities or programs providing services to persons with disabilities including access to all areas of a facility or program that are accessible to service recipients, at all reasonable times, including beyond normal working hours and visiting hours; such access should be allowed without advance notice.

Access to facilities and individuals with disabilities includes but is not limited to:

• Unaccompanied access to public and private facilities which provide services, supports, and other assistance for individuals with disabilities in Virginia when necessary to conduct a full investigation of an incident of abuse or neglect.
• The opportunity to interview any facility service recipient, employee, or other person, including the person thought to be the victim of such abuse or neglect, who might be reasonably believed by the system to have knowledge of the incident under investigation; and to inspect, view, and photograph all areas of the facility’s premises that might be reasonably believed by the system to have been connected with the incident under investigation.
• Unaccompanied access to all residents of a facility at reasonable times, which at a minimum shall include normal working hours and visiting hours, for the purpose of
  • Providing information and training on, and referral to, programs addressing the needs of individuals with disabilities, and the protection and advocacy services available from the system, including the name, address, and telephone number of the system and other information and training about individual rights; and
  • Monitoring compliance with respect to the rights and safety of service recipients.
• Unaccompanied access to residents of a facility shall include the opportunity to meet and communicate privately with such individuals regularly formally and informally, by telephone, mail, and in person.

(See the Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. § 15001, et seq., and regulations thereto 45 C.F.R. § 1326.27 et seq.; Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness Act, 42 U.S.C. § 10801, et seq., and regulations thereto 42 C.F.R. § 51.1, et seq.; Protection and Advocacy of Individual Rights Act, 29 U.S.C. § 794e, et seq., and regulations thereto 34 C.F.R. § 381.1 , et seq., 42 U.S.C. § 300d-53, et seq., and Va. Code Ann. § 51.5-39.13, et seq.)