The City of Kinston holds its residents’ and visitors’ quality of life in the highest regard and priority. As such, the City fully supports the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and is committed to adhering to the policies therein and being an ADA-friendly community. Discrimination against individuals with a disability is expressly prohibited and as such the City is committed to providing accessible means of communication and equal opportunity for employment.

For the purposes of this policy, an individual with a disability is defined as any person who:

          1. Has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities;

           2. Has a record of such an impairment; or

          3. Is regarded as having such impairment

The City is prepared to make reasonable modifications to city activities, services, programs and facilities in order to make them accessible. If it is anticipated that a City activity, service or program will require modifications in order to be fully accessible, an access request should be submitted to the Human Resources Department no less than three business days before the event in question. While the City will do everything in its power to make its programs, services and activities as accessible as possible, the City is not required under the ADA to take any action that would impose undue financial or administrative burdens on the City or compromise the intended nature of the event in question.

In order to become ADA compliant in full, the City intends to immediately take the following actions:

1. Produce a comprehensive self-evaluation of Kinston’s current ADA compliance practices;

2. Facilitate public input on the process, content, outcomes and goals of the self-evaluation; and

3. Create and adopt an ADA Compliance Transition Plan that will be implemented swiftly and precisely and will address concerns raised from public input and the self-evaluation process.

Kinston will not place a surcharge on a particular individual with a disability or any group of individuals with disabilities to cover the cost of providing auxiliary aids/services or reasonable modifications of policy.

All questions, concerns or requests should be directed to the City’s Human Resources Department. Kinston’s Grievance Procedure and Citizens with Disabilities Access Request Form can be found on the City’s ADA page. If you would like to make a request, please contact the Human Resources Department.