Disability Law Commons^™

Telehealth And Telework Accessibility In A Pandemic-Induced Virtual World, Blake Reid, Christian Vogler, Zainab Alkebsi

University of Colorado Law Review Forum

This short essay explores one dimension of disability law’s COVID-related “frailty”: how the pandemic has undermined equal access to employment and healthcare for Americans who are deaf or hard of hearing as healthcare and employment migrate toward telehealth and telework activities. This essay’s authors—a clinical law professor; a computer scientist whose research focuses on accessible technology; and a deaf policy attorney for the nation’s premier civil rights organization of, by, and for deaf and hard of hearing individuals in the United States—have collaborated over the past months on detailed advocacy documents aimed at helping deaf and hard of hearing patients …

Shortening The Leash: Emotional Support Animals Under The Fair Housing Act, Katie Basalla

University of Cincinnati Law Review

No abstract provided.

Enough Is As Good As A Feast, Noah C. Chauvin

Seattle University Law Review

Ipse Dixit, the podcast on legal scholarship, provides a valuable service to the legal community and particularly to the legal academy. The podcast’s hosts skillfully interview guests about their legal and law-related scholarship, helping those guests communicate their ideas clearly and concisely. In this review essay, I argue that Ipse Dixit has made a major contribution to legal scholarship by demonstrating in its interview episodes that law review articles are neither the only nor the best way of communicating scholarly ideas. This contribution should be considered “scholarship,” because one of the primary goals of scholarship is to communicate new ideas.

The Eleventh Circuit Permits Schools To Submit Unfinished Homework In L.J. Ex Rel. N.N.J. V. School Board Of Broward County By Requiring Only "Material" Implementation Of Ieps For Students With Disabilities, Madeline E. Smith

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Implicit Disability Bias Disinterred By Zombie Factors In Social Security Disability Determinations, Frank Griffin

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Caught By The Cat’S Paw, Sandra F. Sperino

BYU Law Review

Federal employment discrimination law is enamored with court-created doctrines with catchy names. A fairly recent addition to the canon is the concept of the “cat’s paw,” formally recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court in Staub v. Proctor Hospital. With its name … drawn from a fable, the concept of cat’s paw has taken ground quickly, discussed in hundreds of cases.

The Supreme Court recognized the cat’s paw theory in a case where a hospital fired a worker. The person who made the ultimate decision did not have impermissible bias. However, her decision was influenced by information from two supervisors who …

What Do Nci Data Tell Us About The Characteristics And Outcomes Of Older Adults With Idd?, Valerie J. Bradley, Dorothy Hiersteiner, Henan Li, Alexandra Bonardi, Laura Vegas

Developmental Disabilities Network Journal

The number of older adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) is growing and will continue to expand as the baby boom generation moves into older adulthood. This descriptive analysis provides information on the characteristics and outcomes of a subsample of individuals with IDD aged 55 and over in the 2018-2019 National Core Indicators In Person Survey. Selected findings are compared to characteristics of the general population as measured by the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). Findings suggest the older adults with IDD are more isolated, have smaller social networks than their younger peers, and have less access to transportation …

The Origins Of University Centers On Developmental Disabilities: Early Expectations And Legislation, Bryce Fifield, Marvin G. Fifield

Developmental Disabilities Network Journal

This article describes the evolution and early expectations of university-based programs to serve people with disabilities. I describe the how the committee that President John F. Kennedy created to make recommendations about how to better serve people with mental retardation suggested university-based programs that would improve the science and provide training to professionals who work with this community. I describe the early legislation and program decisions that were made by stakeholders that created the first generation of University Affiliated Facilities and Programs to serve people with disabilities.

Employment First In A Time Of Pandemic, Julie J. Christensen Phd, Msw

Developmental Disabilities Network Journal

No abstract provided.

Opening Editorial: The Origin And Aims Of The Developmental Disabilities Network Journal, Matthew Wappett

Developmental Disabilities Network Journal

In this article, I share my experience of going to school and noticing different groups of students. I noticed that students with disabilities were treated differently, but I didn't understand why. Throughout history, people with disabilities have often been treated differently. For hundreds of years, people with disabilities did not live with their families or in their communities. People with disabilities were often forced to live in institutions or workhouses. Institutions were not good places; they were dangerous, unclean, and isolated. People with disabilities were not allowed to live the life they wanted. In the 1960s, many advocates wanted to …

Cover And Acknowledgements, Matthew Wappett

Developmental Disabilities Network Journal

No abstract provided.

Zambian Disability Policy Stakeholder Perspectives On The Ways That International Initiatives Influence Domestic Disability Policies, Shaun Cleaver, Matthew Hunt, Virginia Bond, Raphael Lencucha

Southern African Journal of Policy and Development

Disability has attracted attention in international human rights and development circles and Zambian domestic policy. The purpose of this research was to explore the perceptions of Zambian disability policy stakeholders about the ways that two international initiatives, namely the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), are being reflected in domestic policy. We collected data through semi-structured interviews with 22 policy stakeholders (12 disability advocates and 10 policymakers) and analysed these data using thematic analysis. The UNCRPD was perceived to be progressively integrated into Zambian disability policy although insufficiently implemented …

Perfect Adherence Or Material Deviation?: The Eleventh Circuit's Bright Idea In Resolving Individualized Education Plan Implementation Cases, Chelsea Henderson

Mercer Law Review

In 2002, L.J., a child with intellectual disabilities and autism, began using an individualized education plan (IEP). This IEP was meant to provide L.J. with the free appropriate public education (FAPE) that is guaranteed to all children across the United States. However, L.J.'s mother did not believe the School Board of Broward County adequately implemented L.J.'s IEP. L.J.'s mother's concern resulted in an almost twenty-year legal battle between L.J. and the Broward County School Board. This battle finally ended in June 2019, when the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit joined four other circuits in holding that …

Accommodating Absence: Medical Leave As An Ada Reasonable Accommodation, Sean P. Mulloy

Michigan Law Review

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is widely regarded as one of the most significant pieces of civil rights legislation in American history. Among its requirements, Title I of the ADA prohibits employers from discriminating against people with disabilities and requires that employers make reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals. Many questions about the scope of the reasonable-accommodation mandate remain, however, as federal circuit courts disagree over whether extended medical leave may be considered a reasonable accommodation and whether an employee on leave is a qualified individual. This Note argues that courts should presume finite unpaid medical leaves of absence are …

Enforcement Of The Americans With Disabilities Act: Remedying “Abusive” Litigation While Strengthening Disability Rights, Evelyn Clark

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

This Note explores the Americans with Disabilities Act and the private litigation used to enforce compliance. While the ADA was designed to be enforced by private citizens, many have called for reform to limit what they see as “abusive” litigants. This Note focuses on (1) the perceived problem of vexatious litigants abusing the ADA and its state counterparts to benefit monetarily, (2) the attempted solutions on both a state and federal level, and (3) recommended solutions that focus on protecting the rights of individuals with disabilities while limiting abusive litigation meant to extort businesses.

Digital Accessibility In The Hospitality And Tourism Industry: Legal And Ethical Considerations, Debra D. Burke, Kenneth J. Sanney, Dan Clapper

William & Mary Business Law Review

Federal law requires accessibility for public sector websites. What about the web pages and apps of hotels, restaurants, and tourism providers? The Americans with Disabilities Act may cover private sector websites if they are considered a place of public accommodation, but the law is unclear. This Article will provide an overview of the legal responsibilities of operators to provide accessibility to persons with disabilities, discuss the World Wide Web Consortium’s guidelines for web accessibility, and argue that the hospitality and tourism industry has a unique ethical obligation to fill in the gap where the legal system has failed this population.

Workplace Wellness Programs: Empirical Doubt, Legal Ambiguity, And Conceptual Confusion, Camila Strassle, Benjamin E. Berkman

William & Mary Law Review

Federal laws that protect workers from insurance discrimination and infringement of health privacy include exceptions for wellness programs that are “voluntary” and “reasonably designed” to improve health. Initially, these exceptions were intended to give employers the flexibility to create innovative wellness programs that would appeal to workers, increase productivity, and protect the workforce from preventable health conditions.

Yet a detailed look at the scientific literature reveals that wellness program efficacy is quite disputed, and even highly touted examples of program success have been shown to be unreliable. Meanwhile, the latest administrative regulations on wellness programs were vacated by a district …

Mediation In Education For Foster Care, Anelise Powers

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

There are well over 400,000 children in foster care. Education can improve the well-being of foster children in critical development stages of life and support their economic success in adulthood. In recent years, the law has given greater priority to the education of foster children, and foster children are often eligible for additional services. However, a common trend in foster care research is that foster children, though eligible, do not always receive the services created to assist them. This paper will explore how improving mediation related to education and foster care can help maximize the impact of efforts to improve …

Internet Architecture And Disability, Blake Reid

Indiana Law Journal

The Internet is essential for education, employment, information, and cultural and democratic participation. For tens of millions of people with disabilities in the United States, barriers to accessing the Internet—including the visual presentation of information to people who are blind or visually impaired, the aural presentation of information to people who are deaf or hard of hearing, and the persistence of Internet technology, interfaces, and content without regard to prohibitive cognitive load for people with cognitive and intellectual disabilities—collectively pose one of the most significant civil rights issues of the information age. Yet disability law lacks a comprehensive theoretical approach …

The Blind Leading The Deaf: An Investigation Of The Inconsistent Accommodations The Justice System Provides To People Who Are Deaf, Elizabeth Pindilli

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

Historically, and to this day, people with disabilities have not been considered capable of determining their own needs. Instead, the general population has taken it upon themselves to dictate what accommodations they shall receive. This becomes particularly problematic for the deaf community when interacting with the criminal justice system, where a lack of communication is synonymous with a lack of justice. In this situation, the state should defer to the individual’s understanding of their needs, or carry the burden of proving that another accommodation is equally effective.

The Website Accommodations Test: Applying The Americans With Disabilities Act To Websites, Ashley Cheff

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

In 2017, 814 lawsuits were filed alleging discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) due to website inaccessibility, up from 262 in the previous year. Beginning in July 2010, the federal Department of Justice (DOJ) considered issuing regulations under ADA Title III related to website accessibility. However, no changes have been made to date, leaving courts split over whether websites constitute places of public accommodation via the ADA. Dispositive to some jurisdictions’ holdings is whether a website has a nexus to a physical place, which may lend toward viewing the site as a public accommodation. Other jurisdictions provide that …

Disability Rights And The Discourse Of Justice, Samuel R. Bagenstos

SMU Law Review Forum

Although the ADA has changed the built architecture of America and dramatically increased the visibility of disabled people, it has not meaningfully increased disability employment rates. And the statute continues to provoke a backlash. Disability rights advocates and sympathizers offer two principal stories to explain this state of affairs. One, the “lost-bipartisanship” story, asserts that disability rights were once an enterprise broadly endorsed across the political spectrum but that they have fallen prey to the massive rise in partisan polarization in the United States. The other, the “legal-change-outpacing-social-change” story, asserts that the ADA was essentially adopted too soon—that the legislative …

Screened Out Of Housing: The Impact Of Misleading Tenant Screening Reports And The Potential For Criminal Expungement As A Model For Effectively Sealing Evictions, Katelyn Polk

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

Having an eviction record “blacklists” tenants from finding future housing. Even renters with mere eviction filings—not eviction orders—on their records face the harsh collateral consequences of eviction. This Note argues that eviction records should be sealed at filing and only released into the public record if a landlord prevails in court. Juvenile record expungement mechanisms in Illinois serve as a model for one way to protect people with eviction records. Recent updates to the Illinois juvenile expungement process provided for the automatic expungement of certain records and strengthened the confidentiality protections of juvenile records. Illinois protects juvenile records because it …

Four Pathways Of Undermining Board Of Trustees Of The University Of Alabama V. Garrett, Derek Warden

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

In Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama v. Garrett, the Supreme Court held that Title I of the ADA did not validly abrogate state sovereign immunity; and as such, a plaintiff could not obtain damages against the states or sue the states directly for injunctive relief. Many courts and scholars have read Garrett as sounding the death knell for ADA Title I government employee plaintiffs. This article shows that such fears are misplaced. Indeed, this article offers four pathways around Garrett that show Title I and its requirements are very much alive and well. First, the article shows …

Recognizing The Need For Mental Health Reform In The Texas Department Of Criminal Justice, Kara Mchorse

St. Mary's Law Journal

The ways in which mental health care and the criminal justice system interact are in desperate need of reform in Texas. The rate of mental illness in Texas is higher than the current state of mental health care can provide for. While state hospitals were once the primary care facilities of those with mental illness, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) has taken on that role in the last few decades; and when the criminal justice system becomes entangled with mental health care, it often leads to “unmitigated disaster.” If Texas continues to allow the TDCJ to act as …

Student Note: Finding The Positive In A Positive Drug Test: How Narrowing The Definition Of An Individualized Pre-Employment Assessment Under The Ada Can Encourage Recovery From Opioid Dependence, Sarah Ferraro

Belmont Health Law Journal

This note will address the disparities in the way courts have analyzed the direct threat exception to ADA protection, and why a uniform application of the exception is crucial to both employers and those in recovery. Part I examines how opioids have devolved from an effective pain management tool to a national enemy. This section will answer common questions about why opioids are so addictive and why doctors prescribe them in the first place. It also addresses the scope of the ADA and the direct threat exception used to justify a decision not to hire a prescription drug user, as …

Table Of Contents, University Of The District Of Columbia Law Review

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

No abstract provided.

What Can The Protection And Advocacy Network Offer To Our Veterans?, David A. Boyer

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

The desire to compensate veterans predates the establishment of the United States (“U.S.”). In 1636, individuals with disabilities received pensions for defending the Plymouth colony against Native Americans.1 Throughout history, this practice continued, as documented by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (“VA”).2 By 1930, President Herbert Hoover signed the Executive Order 5398, which created the Veterans Administration.3 Prior to President Hoover’s signing of that executive order, the available veteran services were divided by three separate governmental agencies: the Veterans’ Bureau, the Pensions Bureau, and the Soldiers’ Home.4 Consequently, that executive order combined all three agencies into one that concentrated …

Should Veterans Disability Compensation Be Conditional Upon Veterans Working Towards Rehabilitation And Return To Employment?, Heather Ansley, Aniela Szymanski

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has experienced dramatic increases in its budgets since September 11, 2001.1 Increasing federal deficits during this time has led Congress to seek spending cuts, causing tensions in efforts to ensure that a declining veteran population receives the quality benefits and services they earned through years of service.2While the number of veterans in the United States has steadily been declining due to veterans of World War II, Korea, and Vietnam dying,3 the number of veterans receiving disability compensation has risen dramatically due to injuries sustained by service members in conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, and …