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Disabled individuals have the right to access justice and, thereby, the physical amalgamation of the U.S. justice system: the courthouse. But 'justice for all' often has extremely high barriers to [...]

By any measure, attorney Mark Messing of Traverse City, Michigan, had a successful career. After earning his JD and becoming admitted to the Michigan bar in 1979, Messing began his [...]

In 2015, I started what would be a seven-year law school journey. I was a first-generation American student and the only person in my family who had completed high school [...]

Congress should create a new special interest group within the 8(a) program for disabled business owners. This proposal will achieve the legislative goals of the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), particularly as they pertain to disability rights and employment policy. The Rehabilitation Act and the ADA focus on supporting and integrating disabled individuals in the business sector. Establishing a special interest group for disabled-owned businesses will support the disabled community through a federal small business assistance program. This proposal would also circumvent any issues resulting from AbilityOne's restrictive nature. AbilityOne, a federal program designed to encourage nonprofit organizations to employ disabled individuals, allows participating nonprofits to pay disabled workers a subminimum wage. This proposal would give disabled individuals more economic opportunities and federal aid outside of an AbilityOne participant. Similarly, disabled business owners would be able to avoid several problems related to the 8(a) program that have prevented them from fully utilizing the program in the past, including restrictive eligibility requirements, drifting oversight of the program, and misallocation of program resources. By creating a special interest group in the 8(a) program specifically for disabled business owners, the federal government and Congress can support an invaluable source of economic activity and make progress towards realizing the congressional goals surrounding disability rights and employment policy within the existing government framework., TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Introduction 528 II. History of Legislative Intent to Support the Disabled Community 531 A. The Javits Wagner-O'Day Act and AbilityOne 531 B. The Rehabilitation Act of [...]

When Andrew and Lauren Hackney followed their doctor's advice in caring for their baby, the Pennsylvania parents never dreamed it would lead to losing custody of their 7-month-old daughter--or that [...]

Systemic barriers related to stigma and subordination at work exist because of menstruation and related conditions. This results from the failure of many workplaces to acknowledge, anticipate, or accommodate the [...]

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended in 1972, prohibits discrimination on the basis of a series of categories, including religion and 'all aspects of belief, [...]

Although it is a cliche, it is often said that the greatest asset of any organization is its people. Employees function as the backbone of any business as they are [...]

Website accessibility laws are evolving slowly and businesses are eager for guidance in this uncertain landscape. Over the past decade, courts have been increasingly inundated with lawsuits filed by individuals [...]

This is the tale of three communities confronting issues of sidewalk accessibility. These situations go to the core of accessibility planning, not simply legal disputes about curb cuts, ramps, and [...]

In the final days of 2022, President Biden signed into law the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA), which went into effect on June 27, 2023. The law was backed by [...]

Introduction A pivotal question in workplace injury cases is whether the injury is compensable. Generally, workplace injuries are compensable under the state workers' compensation statute if the accident arises out [...]

In 2004, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the constitutionality of Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act 'as it applies to the class of cases implicating the fundamental right [...]

The Equality Act is a federal bill pending in Congress that is designed to provide broad, nationwide protections against discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity that are [...]

A Hearing Scenario Judge: Do you understand your rights? Party: (long pause) Can you tell me again? Judge: What did you not understand? Voice from gallery: Jim, show him the [...]

One in four U.S. adults--61 million people--have a disability that impacts their ability to walk, breathe, communicate, hear, process information, and see. See Catherine A. Okoro et al., Prevalence of [...]

Introduction Wearable technology excels at providing health data. Yesterday's pedometer has been relegated to the dustbin while today's fitness trackers, like those from Fitbit, Jawbone, Garmin, and Apple, track not [...]

I. Introduction II. ADA as a Basis for Litigation Over Website Accessibility A. What Does the ADA Have to Do With the Internet? B. Are Websites Places of Public Accommodation? [...]

Karla Gilbride kept getting lost while trying to navigate unlabeled buttons and unorganized graphics when searching online for someone to handle her wedding registry and invitations. Gilbride, who is blind [...]

#MyPathToLaw is a guest column that celebrates the diversity of the legal profession through attorneys' first-person stories detailing their unique and inspiring trajectories. To many, it may seem ironic that [...]

Ever since the arrival of COVID-19 vaccines, private employers across the U.S. have grappled with whether to mandate vaccines for employees. Some businesses have implemented employee vaccine requirements as another [...]

People with disabilities comprised roughly one in six eligible voters in 2016, according to a report by researchers Lisa Schur and Douglas Kruse at Rutgers University. The report, 'Projecting the [...]

Since 2017, plaintiffs have brought roughly 10,000 digital accessibility lawsuits against businesses and governments under Titles II and III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and other statutes. The [...]

The last several years have brought an unusual number of public calls to change privacy rules to permit or require greater disclosure of individuals' mental health information--including details about their [...]

A few years ago, a young associate in the Chicago office of Schiff Hardin asked senior partner Max Brittain for advice. She was often late with assignments, especially the big [...]

Jamey Gump just wanted to get home. Gump and his friend Manveen Chahal had met for drinks at a bar in the Bay Area suburb of Menlo Park, California, in [...]

At a time when many U.S. policymakers increasingly are focused on the issue of poverty and economic disparity as an important and neglected social problem (not to mention a perceived [...]

I. Introduction On an average evening in the late 1950s, Charlotte L. discovered that she could no longer walk upstairs to her bedroom. A visit to the doctor later, Charlotte [...]

Because she had contracted polio as a toddler, Judith Heumann couldn't attend her neighborhood school in Brooklyn. The principal thought her wheelchair would be a fire hazard. That experience figured [...]

I. Introduction Representing a client with mental or intellectual disabilities presents unique challenges in any legal setting. Representing the same client in a stressful child custody hearing, where the fact [...]

Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Football League (NFL), and the National Basketball Association (NBA) have all agreed, in their new collective bargaining agreements, to test players for human growth [...]

This is the American Bar Association's Commission on Mental and Physical Disability Law (Commission) 2010--the fourteenth annual--survey of employment cases brought in federal court under the Americans with Disabilities Act [...]

On March 25, 2011, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued its final regulations implementing the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA), (1) which was enacted on [...]

The American Bar Association (ABA) has a substantial history of working for the inclusion of individuals with disabilities, particularly lawyers and law students with disabilities. Goal III, one of the [...]

This is the thirteenth most up-to-date annual survey of employment cases brought in federal court under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Title I, 42 U.S.C. [section][section]12111-117. As in the [...]

Introduction Now that Congress has finally passed, and the President has signed, limited national health insurance, it is an opportune time to review the latest developments regarding the key laws [...]

The last eight years brought significant advances for people with psychiatric disabilities as a result of the Obama administration's enforcement of disability rights laws--particularly the 'integration mandate' of the Americans [...]

With the change in the federal political leadership, many communities are anxious about the future of the civil rights laws that protect them. The disability community shares this anxiety. In [...]

The author points out that if eligibility of children for services under the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) continues to be limited, more parents with children who have disabilities will bring claims under the section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Under section 504, disability discrimination is forbidden by federal grantees while an ADA provision forbids disability discrimination by local governments and state. The laws as supplement in special education cases is discussed.

It was a protest that made headlines: a group of people crawling up the steps of the United States Supreme Court. The year? 2004. The reason? They were supporting George [...]

The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Tennessee v. Lane (1) was a crossroads for disability rights law. In 2001, the Court had held in Board of Trustees of the University [...]

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) grants employment protection for qualified individuals with a disability. But how do addictions relate to the ADA? Particularly, do forms of compulsivity, such as [...]