01/20/2016

Scott Gilligan Legal Quiz

Digital Director answer of the week!

A family arranging a funeral informs you that the decedent’s sister is deaf and will need an interpreter for the visitation in your funeral home and for the funeral service at a nearby church. They also tell you that the funeral home is required to pay the interpreter’s fees for attending both events. Which statement correctly reflects your obligation under the ADA:

A. The funeral home has to pay the interpreter’s fees for both services since you are supervising them. 

B. The funeral home has to pay the interpreter’s fees for the visitation since it is in your facility, but it does not have to pay for the interpreter’s fees for the funeral service since the service is being held outside of the funeral home in a church.

C. The funeral home has no obligation to pay the interpreter’s fees.

Answer: A. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, a funeral home, like all other businesses, must make their services available to persons with disabilities unless to do so would create an undue burden. The Department of Justice has issued advisories indicating that funeral homes would be required to provide at their own cost interpreters for individuals with hearing disabilities so that they could receive the benefit of funeral services provided by the funeral home.  This includes not only services held at the funeral home but also services at other facilities as long as the funeral home is being paid to arrange and supervise the services.