What is missing? Reviewing an intake policy

Five requirements, five closed doors

The sample policy in this lesson is drawn from patterns that appear across public programs. No one wrote it to exclude anyone. Each requirement solved a problem for the office: the portal reduces data entry, English instructions were quick to write, Tuesday mornings fit the staff schedule, the phone line is cheaper than walk-ins, and the certified determination prevents fraud. The exclusions are side effects, and side effects are still effects.

Walk the policy as five people. A blind man whose screen reader cannot complete the portal. A Karen-speaking mother who reads neither the instructions nor the confirmation email. A man with a spinal cord injury whose paratransit ride cannot be booked for a fixed Tuesday slot. A Deaf woman for whom a phone-only help line is no help line. A young woman with a learning disability whose school records were lost in a move and whose certified determination would cost her a specialist visit, a fee and six weeks.

Every one of them is eligible. Every one of them is stopped before the program can find out. The people a policy stops do not appear in its complaint data, because they never got far enough to complain.

The five questions for any policy

Who cannot complete this step at all, and why? Name the person, not the category.
What does this step cost the people who can complete it: time, money, privacy, dignity?
What is the step actually protecting, and is there a way to protect it that excludes no one?
What is the default alternative, and is it written into the policy or left to a request?
Who owns the change, and by when will it be made?

The intake policy, corrected

The same five requirements, rewritten so that each has a default alternative and an owner.

How to apply Online, by phone, on paper or in person, with the same questions in each channel. A staff member can complete the form with the applicant. Owner: program manager and forms team.

Language and format Instructions and notices in the program’s top languages, with interpretation for any language on request, plus large print, accessible electronic formats and plain-language versions. Owner: language access and accessibility teams.

Appointments and help Intake by phone, video or in person, at times including at least one evening, with relay and video-phone access. Help is available by phone, email, text and in person. Owner: intake supervisor.

Documentation Accept any reasonable evidence of disability, including a provider’s letter or existing agency records, and help the applicant obtain records rather than requiring them up front. Owner: eligibility lead, with the responsible policy office confirming what the program may accept.

Use this format for the next policy you review: requirement, who it excludes, default alternative, owner. Send it to the owner, not to a general inbox.

Browse and download only. Staff notes are not typed or saved on this page.

Change the default, not the exception

What you can change

You control whether an accessible alternative appears in the policy itself or in a sentence about requests that puts the work back on the excluded person.

What to watch for

Do not accept “accommodations available upon request” as the fix for a step that some people cannot get through to make the request.

Your next step

In the next policy you touch, move one alternative from the exceptions paragraph into the main procedure.

Who each requirement excludes

Online-only completion

People whose assistive technology cannot use the portal, people without reliable devices or connections, people who need to complete it with someone else present, and people who do not trust an online record.

English-only instructions

Anyone who reads in another language, and anyone who reads English with difficulty, including many people with cognitive, learning or print disabilities.

A fixed appointment time

People who rely on paratransit or a ride, shift workers, parents, people whose conditions fluctuate, and people who need an interpreter who is not free at that hour.

A phone-only help line

Deaf and hard-of-hearing people, people with speech disabilities, people with anxiety about phone calls, and people who cannot call during the hours it is open.

Hard-to-obtain documentation

People whose records were lost or are held by a school or provider they no longer see, people who cannot afford a new evaluation, and people who were never formally diagnosed because access to diagnosis is itself unequal.

A policy requires a certified copy of a disability determination before intake can begin. Which revision best follows this course?

Keep the requirement and add a line that staff may make exceptions in hardship cases.

Accept any reasonable evidence, begin intake while records are gathered, and have staff help obtain records, with the responsible policy office confirming what may be accepted.

Remove any documentation requirement so no one is excluded.

Try a situation

A program manager circulates a draft intake policy for a new employment-support program: apply through the online portal, follow the English instructions, attend a fixed intake appointment on Tuesday mornings, call the help line with questions, and bring a certified copy of a disability determination. She asks for comments by Friday.

What is the most useful comment?

Approve it; applicants who have trouble can ask for help.

Name each of the five requirements, who it excludes, and a default alternative for each, and ask that the alternatives be written into the policy rather than offered on request.

Suggest adding a line that says accommodations are available upon request.

Carry this forward

Online-only completion, English-only instructions, a fixed appointment time, a phone-only help line and hard-to-obtain documentation each look reasonable alone and together close the door on the people the program exists for.
Every exclusion has a person it excludes, a cost it imposes and an owner who can change it.
A corrected policy offers alternatives by default, not on request.

A completed review of the sample policy and a written review of one policy from your own unit, naming what is missing and who owns the fix.

Take one policy or procedure in your unit through the same five questions and send the result, with proposed owners, to the person who can change it.

What you’ll be able to do

Five requirements, five closed doors

The five questions for any policy

The intake policy, corrected

Change the default, not the exception

What you can change

What to watch for

Your next step

Who each requirement excludes

Try a situation

Carry this forward

Your next step

What is missing? Reviewing an intake policy

What you’ll be able to do

Five requirements, five closed doors

The five questions for any policy

The intake policy, corrected

Change the default, not the exception

What you can change

What to watch for

Your next step

Who each requirement excludes

Try a situation

Carry this forward

Your next step