(a) This section shall only apply to the following proposed regulations:
(1) Regulations proposed by the Department of Rehabilitation.
(2) Regulations that must be submitted to the California Building Standards Commission that pertain to disability access compliance, including, but not limited to, regulations proposed by the State Fire Marshal, the Department of Housing and Community Development, the Division of the State Architect, and the California Commission on Disability Access.
(3) Regulations proposed by the State Department of Education that pertain to special education.
(4) Regulations proposed by the State Department of Health Care Services that pertain to the Medi-Cal program.
(b) Upon request from a person with a visual disability or other disability for which effective communication is required under state or federal law, the agency shall provide that person a narrative description of the additions to, and deletions from, the California Code of Regulations or other publication. The description shall identify each addition to or deletion from the California Code of Regulations by reference to the subdivision, paragraph, subparagraph, clause, or subclause within the proposed regulation containing the addition or deletion. The description shall provide the express language proposed to be added to or deleted from the California Code of Regulations or other publication and any portion of the surrounding language necessary to understand the change in a manner that allows for accurate translation by reading software used by the visually impaired.
(c) The agency shall provide the information described in subdivision (b) within 10 business days, unless the agency determines that compliance with this requirement would be impractical and notifies the requester of the date on which the information will be provided.
(d) Notwithstanding any other law, if information is provided to a requester pursuant to this section, the agency shall provide that requester at least 45 days from the date upon which the information was provided to the requester to submit a public comment regarding the proposed regulation. The agency shall not take final action to adopt the regulation until the requester has submitted a public comment or the extended 45-day comment period expires, whichever occurs first.
(e) The requirements imposed pursuant to subdivisions (b) to (d), inclusive, for a proposed regulation described in subdivision (a) shall apply to an agency only for purposes of that proposed regulation until the proposed regulation is filed with the Secretary of State or until the agency otherwise concludes the regulatory adoption process.
(f) (1) Not later than February 1, 2014, an agency that adopted a proposed regulation subject to the requirements of this section shall submit a report, for both the 2012 and 2013 calendar years, to the Governor, the fiscal committee in each house of the Legislature, and the appropriate policy committee in each house of the Legislature, that specifies the number of requests submitted for a narrative description of a proposed regulation, and the number of narrative descriptions actually provided pursuant to this section.
(2) The report shall be submitted to the Legislature in the manner required pursuant to Section 9795.
(3) The reporting requirement imposed by this subdivision shall become inoperative on February 1, 2018, as required pursuant to Section 10231.5.
(4) It is the intent of the Legislature to evaluate the reports submitted pursuant to this subdivision to determine whether the requirements of this section should be applied to all regulations adopted by all agencies.
(Added by Stats. 2011, Ch. 495, Sec. 3. (AB 410) Effective January 1, 2012.)