Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, the City of Providence is required to appoint a coordinator to oversee compliance. The Nondiscrimination Compliance Coordinator (NCC) ensures that individuals with disabilities have equal access to city programs and services and that the city adheres to civil rights protections, prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, or national origin (including limited English proficiency), sex (including pregnancy), age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, or gender identity (including expression). These roles help ensure compliance with federal regulations and promote inclusivity across all city services.
The City of Providence ADA & Title VI Coordinator may be contacted at:
Leonela Felix
Assistant City Solicitor
444 Westminster Street, Suite 220
Providence, RI 02903
Email: LFelix@providenceri.gov
Phone: (401) 680-5333 (TTY/Relay: 771)
Title VI Coordinator
What can the Nondiscrimination Compliance Coordinator help me with?”
The NCC can assist with requesting accommodations, filing complaints, and ensuring compliance with both the ADA and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. If you need support or have questions about your rights, the NCC is your primary point of contact.
Requests for Reasonable Modification/Accommodation
The City will make reasonable modifications (“accommodations”) in policies, practices, or procedures when the modification is necessary to avoid discrimination on the basis of disability. However, the City is not required to make a modification when it would fundamentally alter the nature of the service, program, or activity, cause undue financial or administrative burden, or create a threat to safety.
Examples of Reasonable Modifications:
- City staff assisting people with disabilities (cognitive, mobility, visual, etc.) in filling out a form
- Granting extra speaking time in a public comment session to a person with a speech disability or who is using an interpreter
- Allowing a Service Animal — that is a dog trained to perform specific tasks related to the disability of its handler — in an area that would otherwise not allow animals.
Requests for Physical Accessibility Improvement
The City shall operate each service, program or activity so that when it’s viewed in its entirety, is readily accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities. In the event that a structural change to a facility, including the public right-of-way, is needed to achieve program accessibility, the City will accept need-based requests from people with disabilities to evaluate, prioritize, and work out best possible solutions and timelines for barrier removal to meet requester’s needs.
Examples of Physical Accessibility Improvements:
- Due to your mobility disability, request the addition of a curb ramp (or removal of another barrier) at a location related to your individual need to get to government offices, public facilities, medical care, transportation, work, shopping, or another location.
- Due to your vision disability, request an Audible Pedestrian Signal at a location related to your individual need for travel route.
- Due to your use of a wheelchair with limited reach, request the relocation of a push-button actuated door, or other control feature, to be within your reach level.
Request for Communication Auxiliary Aid/Service
The City will take appropriate steps to ensure that communications with members of the public with disabilities are as effective as communications with others. This may be achieved through a request by a person with a disability to have alternate format communication material, or auxiliary aids or services needed due to their disability.
Examples of Communication Auxiliary Aids or Services:
- Due to your vision disability, request a large font printed version of materials.
- Due to your deafness or hard hearing disability, request an American Sign Language Interpreter or captioning for a meeting.
- Due to your deafness or hard of hearing disability, conduct phone conversations with the City by using Rhode Island Relay Service.
Request Limited English Proficiency (LEP) Services
Limited English Proficiency (LEP) is a term used to describe people who do not speak English as their primary language and who also may have limited ability to read, write, or understand English. Upon request, the City will provide to people with LEP free translation and interpretation services of City information for public meetings, oral communications, written communication and documents.
Examples of Limited English Proficiency Requests:
- Request for translation of written City forms or informational material.
- Request a bilingual staff person to assist you at a City service counter.
- Request for Spanish interpreter or Spanish captioning for a public meeting.
For more information on how the City is expanding language access city-wide,
click here to see our Language Access Toolkit.
