Disability Law Commons^™

Intellectual Property's Need For A Disability Perspective, Eric E. Johnson

Faculty Articles

This Article approaches intellectual property law from a critical-disability theory perspective. It argues that, in specific instances, courts have gotten the law wrong because of a failure to take into account the perspective of persons with disabilities. In the context of law, and intellectual property law in particular, confronting those differences means taking into account a disability perspective even where all the parties in a given case are not disabled and where the dispute does not directly implicate issues of disability. This sua sponte accounting is necessary because intellectual property cases have the effect of defining rights that extend far …

Crossroads And Signposts: The Ada Amendments Act Of 2008, Jeannette Cox

School of Law Faculty Publications

Although the apparent purpose of the 2008 amendments to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is solely to broaden the ADA 's protected class, the manner in which the amendments achieve this purpose erodes the statute's explicit textual support for understanding persons with disabilities as a politically subordinated minority. The amendments also strengthen the statutory link between the biological severity of a person's disability and that person's right to sue for ADA accommodations. Accordingly, for some courts, the amendments will reinforce the perception that the ADA differs from traditional civil rights law.

Federal courts' understanding of the ADA 's relationship …

Why Context Matters: Defining Service Animals Under Federal Law, Rebecca J. Huss

Law Faculty Publications

This Article analyzes the differing definitions of service animals under federal law as interpreted by three separate agencies. The regulations and case law interpreting the issue under the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Fair Housing Act, and the Air Carrier Access Act illustrate the need for further clarification in order to ensure that individuals with disabilities are granted the full protection of the law.

Note from Author: After the publication of this article, in July 2010, final regulations for the ADA were released. These final regulations can be found at 75 Fed. Reg. 56164 (Sept. 15, 2010) (applying to state …

Reducing Disparities Through Health Care Reform: Disability And Accessible Medical Equipment, Elizabeth Pendo

Articles

People with disabilities face multiple barriers to adequate health care and report poorer health status than people without disabilities. Although health care institutions, offices, and programs are required to be accessible, people with disabilities are still receiving unequal and in many cases inadequate care. The 2009 report by the National Council on Disability, The Current State of Health Care for People with Disabilities, reaffirmed some of these findings, concluding that people with disabilities experience significant health disparities and barriers to health care; encounter a lack of coverage for necessary services, medications, equipment, and technologies; and are not included in the …

"With Faces Hidden While The Walls Were Tightening": Applying International Human Rights Standards To Forensic Psychology, Michael L. Perlin

Articles & Chapters

Although there are now robust bodies of literature in both Alaw and psychology and in international human rights law, there has been remarkably little written about the specific relationship between forensic psychology and international human rights standards (and about the relationship between mental disability law and such standards in general). Attention is paid when it appears that state psychiatry or psychology is used as a tool of political oppressions e.g., in the former Soviet Union or in China, but the literature is strangely silent on questions dealing with the extent to which forensic psychology practice comports withinternational human rights norms. …

How The Biological/Social Divide Limits Disability And Equality, Martha T. Mccluskey

Journal Articles

What is disability - a biological or social condition? In the conventional equality frameworks, the division between biology and social identity puts disability at the bottom of the formal equality hierarchy, but at the top of the substantive equality hierarchy. Compared with race and then gender, disability deserves the least protection against formal discrimination, on the theory that disadvantages are based on real and relevant functional differences more than on suspect social judgments. But turning to substantive equality, disability’s supposed greater biological basis justifies affirmative accommodation of difference, compared to the social differences of race, with gender in the middle …

Taking It To The Streets: A Public Right-Of-Way Project For Disability Law, Elizabeth Pendo

Articles

I teach a course in Disability Discrimination Law, which is designed as a civil rights course focused on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). When the ADA was passed in 1990, it was celebrated by many as one of the most significant civil-rights victories of this century. The ADA was enacted to "provide clear, strong, consistent, [and] enforceable standards [for] addressing discrimination against individuals with disabilities" and prohibits discrimination in employment, public services and transportation, privatelyowned places of public accommodations, and telecommunications. Although the ADA is not the first federal law addressing disability, its passage made clear that the continued …

Giving Voice In Court: Cushioning Adversarialism For Witnesses With Intellectual Disabilities, Prianka Nair

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Reducing Disparities Through Health Care Reform: Disability And Accessible Medical Equipment, Elizabeth Pendo

All Faculty Scholarship

People with disabilities face multiple barriers to adequate health care and report poorer health status than people without disabilities. Although health care institutions, offices, and programs are required to be accessible, people with disabilities are still receiving unequal and in many cases inadequate care. The 2009 report by the National Council on Disability, The Current State of Health Care for People with Disabilities, reaffirmed some of these findings, concluding that people with disabilities experience significant health disparities and barriers to health care; encounter a lack of coverage for necessary services, medications, equipment, and technologies; and are not included in the …

A Service Learning Project: Disability, Access And Health Care, Elizabeth Pendo

All Faculty Scholarship

Last summer, I was thinking about a public service project for my disability discrimination law course. I teach the course in fall, and try to incorporate a project each year. At the same time, I was working on a project looking at barriers to health care for people with disabilities. Some of the barriers are well known, such as lower average incomes, disproportionate poverty, and issues with insurance coverage, to name just a few. I was looking at barriers of a different type, however: those posed by physically inaccessible facilities and equipment. This was a new area for me. Like …

Race, Sex And Genes At Work: Uncovering The Lessons Of Norman-Bloodsaw, Elizabeth Pendo

All Faculty Scholarship

The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (“GINA”) is the first federal, uniform protection against the use of genetic information in both the workplace and health insurance. Signed into law on May 21, 2008, GINA prohibits an employer or health insurer from acquiring or using an individual’s genetic information, with some exceptions. One of the goals of GINA is to eradicate actual, or perceived, discrimination based on genetic information in the workplace and in health insurance. Although the threat of genetic discrimination is often discussed in universal terms - as something that could happen to any of us - the …

Reviving Employee Rights - Recent And Upcoming Employment Discrimination Legislation: Proceedings Of The 2010 Annual Meeting Of The Association Of American Law Schools Section On Employment Discrimination Law, Scott A. Moss, Sandra Sperino, Robin R. Runge, Charles A. Sullivan

Publications

No abstract provided.

Shared Understanding Or Consensus-Masked Disagreement? The Anti-Torture Framework In The Convention On The Rights Of Persons With Disabilities, Janet E. Lord

Articles

No abstract provided.

Lessons From The Experience Of U.N. Convention On The Rights Of Persons With Disabilities: Addressing The Democratic Deficit In Global Health Governance, Janet E. Lord, David Suozzi, Alyn L. Taylor

Articles

No abstract provided.

Disability-Inclusive Disaster Preparedness And Response: Challenges And Opportunities For Reconstruction In Haiti,, Janet E. Lord

Articles

Hurricanes Rita and Katrina poignantly demonstrated the failure of U.S. federal-level disaster preparedness to respond effectively to the needs of disabled beneficiaries. Similarly, the 2004 Asian tsunami revealed major shortcomings in humanitarian assistance operations conducted by international agencies to address the needs of affected persons with disabilities. The adoption of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)' in 2006 highlights disability inclusion as a human rights issue in humanitarian emergencies. It is within this context that the Haitian earthquake on January 12,2010, presents a major challenge, but also an opportunity to address disability inclusion and apply lessons …

The Law And Politics Of Us Participation In The Un Convention On The Rights Of Persons With Disabilities, Professor Michael Stein, Janet E. Lord, Penelope J.S. Stein

Articles

No abstract provided.

Monitoring The Convention On The Rights Of Persons With Disabilities: Innovations, Lost Opportunities, And Future Potential, Professor Michael Stein, Janet E. Lord

Articles

As the first human rights treaty of the twenty-first century, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) protects some 650 million persons with disabilities. The CRPD also has an opportunity to progressively reconfigure the structure and process of human rights oversight. While the overall framework for monitoring and implementing the CRPD resembles existing core human rights instruments, it has some notable features. The CPRD Committee is endowed with several innovations of significant potential, especially in the breadth of reporting and investigative procedures, thereby offering prospects for other treaty bodies and the human rights system more …