Disability Law Commons^™

Fragmented Lives: Disability Discrimination And The Role Of "Environment-Framing", Ani B. Satz

Washington and Lee Law Review

This Article presents a novel theory that courts undermine the purpose of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by implicitly embracing environment-frames that disfavor disability protections. Courts employ environment-frames at two stages of judicial analysis under the Act: the disability eligibility and remedy stages. In determining whether a plaintiff is in the statutorily protected class, courts typically use a broad environment-frame to assess limitation of a "major life activity." The larger the environment-frame, the more likely a court will view an individual as able to perform a major life activity in some portion of her environment and deny her protected …