Law Commons^™

"Corrective" Surgery And The Americans With Disabilities Act, Jeannette Cox

Jeannette Cox

This article challenges the assumption that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires persons with disabilities to undergo “corrective” surgery as a precondition to membership in the ADA’s protected class. This issue is ripe for discussion because current efforts to amend the ADA, although not focused on the “corrective” surgery issue, will unsettle the current doctrine underpinning many courts’ conclusions that an individual’s decision to forgo available medical technology bars her from relief under the ADA. The article aims to make two contributions. First, it argues that the ADA’s focus on reshaping cultural responses to disability suggests that individuals need …

Parallel Lines Never Meet: Why The Military Disability Retirement And Veterans Affairs Department Claim Adjudication Systems Are A Failure, Thomas Reed

Thomas J Reed

Service members who are injured or come down with a disease while on active duty have two roads to seek compensation for disability benefits that are part of the enlistment contract. The first road is military disability retirement, administered by the armed services. The second road is VA compensation administered by the cabinet-level Department of Veterans Affairs. Both systems are near collapse due to a backlog of undecided claims and manifest injustices in awarding benefits to disabled veterans and dependents.

Professor Reed proposes a radical reform of the dual compensation system by combining military disability retirement and VA benefits into …

Lashing Back At The Ada Backlash: How The Americans With Disabilities Act Benefits Americans Without Disabilities, Michelle A. Travis

Michelle A. Travis

This Article applies Professor Derrick Bell's interest convergence hypothesis to the disability context. By identifying how the ADA benefits nondisabled workers, this Article challenges the notion that advancing equality for individuals with disabilities necessarily comes at the expense of the nondisabled workforce. Many scholars have documented the socio-legal backlash against the ADA, particularly the ADA's reasonable accommodation mandate. This backlash is fueled in part by a belief that the ADA is a form of social welfare, rather than an antidiscrimination law, and that the accommodation mandate requires affirmative action or preferential treatment, rather than merely ensuring equal employment opportunities. More …