Disability Law Commons^™

The Applicability Of The Ada To Private Internet Web Sites, Carrie L. Kiedrowski

Cleveland State Law Review

This article proposes that private commercial web sites are considered places of public accommodation; consequently, private Internet web sites must be accessible to people with disabilities under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Part I introduces the thesis of this article. Part II sets out the historical inception of the legal rights of accessibility for people with disabilities in public and private entities. Additionally, Part II describes recent federal actions mandating accessibility of government related web sites. Part III addresses the question of whether Internet web sites are considered places of public accommodation under the ADA, including an analysis of supporting …

The Rights Of Bar Examination Applicants With Disabilities In The United States, Edwin R. Hazen, Robert D. Dinerstein

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Major Litigation Activities Regarding Major Life Activities: The Failure Of The Disability Definition In The Americans With Disabilities Act Of 1990, Lisa A. Eichhorn

Faculty Publications

The passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA") in 1990 has been praised as the major accomplishment of the disability rights movement. This statute, however, is not without its flaws. Perhaps the most problematic one is the way in which “disability” is defined. Lisa Eichhorn argues that the definition undercuts the effectiveness of the ADA. She begins with a historical look at society’s concepts of disability and discusses how these concepts were incorporated into the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the ADA. She then examines cases that have been dismissed because plaintiffs cannot prove disabled status, which illustrate the …

Research To Practice: Barriers To Transition Planning For Parents Of Adolescents With Special Health Care Needs, Jaimie Ciulla Timmons, James P. Mcintyre Jr., Jean Whitney-Thomas, John Butterworth, Deborah Allen

Research to Practice Series, Institute for Community Inclusion

An examination of the transition planning experiences and concerns of family members of young adults with special health care needs.

Is Hiv "Extraordinary"?, Jordan B. Hansell

Michigan Law Review

The Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 (the "Act") attempts to reduce inconsistencies in the sentences of defendants convicted of comparable crimes. The Act created a Sentencing Commission (the "Commission") and authorized it to promulgate a set of sentencing guidelines to steer judicial decisionmaking. To fulfill this mandate, the Commission drafted the Federal Sentencing Guidelines (the "Guidelines"), which Congress enacted in 1987. Although Congress wanted to eliminate sentencing disparities, it also wanted to allow some degree of individualized sentencing. To achieve the correct balance, the Commission created three categories of characteristics: those a court must consider in sentencing each defendant; those …

The Abled, Disabled, And Enabled: Is Seeing The Difference A Learning Disability Or Merely A Crime?, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article identifies many of the Issues underlying the controversy over providing special accommodations for people who state that they have learning disabilities.

No Pity: People With Disabilities Forging A New Civil Rights Movements, Cheryl A. Leighty

Michigan Law Review

A Review of No Pity: People with Disabilities Forging a New Civil Rights Movement by Joseph P. Shapiro

Working And Poor: The Increasingly Popular Practice Of Excluding Disabled Employees From Health Care Coverage, Maria O'Brien

Faculty Scholarship

One might think, since passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA),' that the employment story for disabled employees or would-be disabled employees was cheerful, or at least improving. This may be true in so far as obtaining and retaining employment is concerned;' however, the ADA, because it permits employers and third-party insurers to continue to utilize traditional risk management techniques, has resulted in reduced or (in some cases) non-existent employee benefits for the disabled. At the same time, more and more employers are opting to self-insure under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA),3 in …

The Nature And Purposes Of Advocacy For People With Disabilities, Errol Cocks, Gordon Duffy

Research outputs pre 2011

Although all human beings experience vulnerability, people with disabilities experience heightened vulnerability. For some people, the consequences of this heightened vulnerability may include social devaluation, physical and social rejection, a loss of control over important areas of their lives and brutalisation. Advocacy is one vital response to vulnerability and its consequences. This monograph presents the results of the National Advocacy Research Project which involved an analysis of the status of advocacy for people with disabilities within Australia and provides direction for the future development of advocacy nationally. The monograph explicates the need for and the purposes of advocacy for people …

Defining "Disability": The Approach To Follow, Theodore J. St. Antoine

Articles

The definition of "disability" has once again become a central issue in workers' compensation law. I am partly responsible. A decade ago I served as the Governor's Special Counselor on Workers' Compensation. In my Reportto the Cabinet Council on Jobs and Economic Development, I stated: "If I could write on a clean slate, I would prefer to see the Michigan definition brought even closer into the mainstream of American law by declaring that 'disability' means a 'limitation of an employee's wage earning capacity in work suitable to his or her qualifications and training resulting from a personal injury or work …

Miles To Go: Some Personal Reflections On Social Construction Of Disability, Dianne Pothier

Dianne Pothier Collection

The "social construction" of disability refers to the way an able bodied conception of disability magnifies its consequences. The social construction of disability assesses and deals with disability from an able bodied perspective. It includes erroneous assumptions about capacity to perform that come from an able bodied frame of reference. It encompasses the failure to make possible or accept different ways of doing things. It reflects a preoccupation with "normalcy" that excludes the disabled person.

The Americans With Disabilities Act: Analysis And Implications Of A Second-Generation Civil Rights Statute, Robert L. Burgdorf Jr.

Journal Articles

Martin Luther King, Jr. once wrote that our nation's civil rights laws were a "sparse and insufficient collection of statutes ... barely a naked framework."' On their faces, many federal civil rights statutes constitute little more than broad directives that "Thou shalt not discriminate." Broadly worded statements outlawing discrimination were the optimal approach to statutory draftsmanship in light of the controversial nature of the civil rights laws passed in the 1960s and 1970s. The drafters of these statutes needed to craft language that would be palatable to a majority of the members of Congress while still having a meaningful impact …

Family Support Of The Disabled: A Legislative Proposal To Create Incentives To Support Disabled Family Members, Judith G. Mcmullen

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Several authorities in the field of estate planning have examined in great detail the options currently available to the parents of disabled children. The options are limited. Ideally, laws should address the concerns of the families of disabled children while providing those families with the incentive to help bear the financial costs of providing for their children. New legislation is needed to achieve this dual objective. This legislation must establish a method by which parents can improve meaningfully the quality of a surviving disabled child's life without substantially increasing the social cost of supporting that disabled child. This Article proposes …

Improving Handicappers' Civil Rights In Michigan--Preventing Discrimination Through Accommodation, Aldebaran Bouse Enloe

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Part I of this Note explains the development of· the current state of handicappers' civil rights law in Michigan, beginning with legislative initiatives and progressing to administrative and judicial decisions. Part II analyzes traditional antidiscrimination theory and suggests how that theory can be adapted to handicappers. By examining hypothetical situations, Part III exposes the disparity between the current state of the law in Michigan and the proposed theoretical analysis and suggests amendments to the MHCRA to reconcile this disparity.

Selective Nontreatment Of Handicapped Newborns, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Selective Nontreatment of Handicapped Newborns by Robert Weir

Employment Problems Of The Handicapped: Would Title Vii Remedies Be Appropriate And Effective?, Cornelius J. Peck

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article argues that the employment problems of the handicapped are not well-suited for treatment under a statutory discrimination model. Underlying this argument is the belief that the concept of discrimination is not adaptable to the problems of the handicapped, and efforts to apply it will only worsen existing problems. Part I begins by defining the meaning of discrimination, and then explores the similarities and differences between discrimination against the handicapped, and discrimination based on race, sex, religion, and national origin. The purpose of this discussion is to provide a basic framework for understanding claims that the handicapped should be …

Postsecondary And Vocational Education Programs And The "Otherwise Qualified" Provision Of Section 504 Of The Rehabilitation Act Of 1973, Marc P. Charmatz, Andrew S. Penn

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

While the Rehabilitation Act defines a "handicapped individual,'' neither the language of section 504 nor its legislative history sheds much light on the exact meaning of the term ''otherwise qualified handicapped individual.'' This article will argue that the definition of this term must be broad enough to include severely handicapped persons, the primary group that Congress intended to benefit and protect in enacting section 504. Focussing on the area of postsecondary education, this article will argue that the interpretation developed in the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) Regulation most effectively fulfills the purposes which Congress intended in enacting …

Workmen's Compensation--Encouraging Employment Of The Handicapped In Michigan: A Proposal For Revision Of The Michigan Second Injury Fund, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Employment of the handicapped is clearly a proper concern of the state. Unemployed, such a person is a burden on his family and on the state; welfare and relief payments to such a person needlessly increase costs to both the state and local governments supporting such programs. Employed, the handicapped person is a self-supporting, stable member of the community; he becomes a taxpayer rather than a tax consumer. There are also important moral and social considerations which may be simply summarized stating that no person who is able to work should be needlessly denied employment. In short, any continued waste …

The Public Employee And His Government: Conditions And Disabilities Of Public Employment, Jerome J. Shestack

Vanderbilt Law Review

Even before Mr. Marbury, the public employee and his government have frequently found themselves on opposite sides of the counsel table. Not that public employees are a particularly litigious lot. Faced, however, with the willingness of administrators to deal with them politically and the unwillingness of legislators to protect them adequately, their resort to the courts was inevitable. But the courts also often provided inadequate protection. Decisions which combined ancient concepts with more than a touch of political realism accorded scant recognition to the substantial interests of the ever-growing number of public employees.

In recent years, the traditional cliches in …