Cash Grant Proposal in Ohio

See this article, which begins:

Up to 200 disabled people would leave nursing homes and use the state and federal money that would have gone to the institutions to hire home health aides in an experimental project the Senate proposed in the state budget.

Several states have pilot projects in which Medicaid money goes directly to the person to spend on health care instead of nursing homes.

States must ask federal permission to start such programs, and President Bush favors the concept, said Mary Kahn, spokeswoman for the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Ohio's application would be made only if the proposal stays in the budget through a full Senate vote this week and then a joint committee to work out differences with the House version of the $51 billion, two-year spending plan. Gov. Bob Taft must sign a balanced budget by July 1.

UK: Parents' Fight to Have Son Sterilized

See this article by that title. It begins:

The parents of a disabled man have said today that they will fight to have their son sterilised.

Gavin Smalldon is 22 but a genetic condition means that he has the mental age of a six-year-old and requires constant care from his parents, 48-year-old Paul and 47-year-old Jo.

The couple, who live in Tonna near Neath, south Wales that their son is incapable of looking after himself and would not be able to care for a child.

Medical experts say that any child of Gavin’s would have more than a 50% chance of being born with the same condition.

Gavin, who is soon to complete a catering course at Neath and Port Talbot college, leads a very active life but always requires supervision.

Mr Smalldon said: “We have been fighting this for many years. It has not been an easy to make a decision on. But if you ask Gavin he wouldn’t be able to give you an answer.

“He has the mind of a six-year-old and finds certain words very funny, you can’t ask him what he thinks about sterilisation and what that means."

Wow. I'll limit myself to this comment: I don't know many six-year-olds who are completing catering courses.

Huge Verdict in Employment Discrimination Case Brought By Boston Schoolteachers with Disabilities

See this article, which begins:

Boston public schools have been ordered to pay more than $450,000 to two disabled teachers who accused school officials of discriminating against them and making it so difficult to teach that they had to leave their jobs.

The award to teachers Diana Sabella and Mary McTernan, who are unable to stand or walk for long periods, is one of the highest made by the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, said Steven Locke, general counsel for the commission, which handed down the rulings this month. The average award is $40,000 to $50,000, he said.

The teachers filed separate complaints in 1997 after reporting to the school system's Office of Equity that they lacked the help they needed to do their jobs, such as the ability to work a flexible schedule and rest during the day. The commission blasted the office for failing to address the complaints and ordered the school department to train administrators each year in the law. State law entitles disabled staff members to reasonable assistance to do their jobs.

''It was apparent from the decisions that the schools essentially neglected their duties and pretty much ignored the requests by the teachers," Locke said yesterday.

Inaccessible Transit in P.E.I.

See this article, which begins:

An advocate for persons with disabilities says Charlottetown's new buses should be accessible to everyone, but four buses purchased for the city's new transit system can't be used by people in wheelchairs. Deputy Mayor Stu MacFadyen said people can use Pat and the Elephant, a not-for-profit organization that provides transportation for people with disabilities.

"In talking with Pat and the Elephant and talking to people, that's working well. And the city will still subsidize Pat and the Elephant and we'll go from there." The executive director of the Canadian Paraplegic Association of P.E.I. said using Pat and the Elephant costs $6 per ride, while the new transit system will cost $2.

Um, does the public transit that nondisabled people use have a cutesy name like "Pat and the Elephant," too, or is that just a special bennie that goes with getting charitable paratransit services? Just wondering.

Interesting Interview with Judy Heumann

is here. She has interesting thoughts about her work at the World Bank and at the Department of Education.

Disability Rights Activists and Assisted Suicide Legislation

A pretty good local news article on the topic is here.

Eighth Circuit: Lane is Limited to Access-to-Courts

In Bill M. v. Nebraska Dep't of Health and Human Services, the Eighth Circuit today held that Title II does not validly abrogate state sovereign immunity in an Olmstead-type case. The court did not engage in any analysis of the congruence and proportionality of the statute to actual or threatened constitutional violations in the Olmstead context. Instead, it pointed to its pre-Lane en banc ruling in Alsbrook v. City of Maumelle, which held that Title II was not valid Section 5 legislation in any circumstances. The court recognized that Tennessee v. Lane abrogated Alsbrook insofar as the statute applies to demands for access to judicial services, but it held that outside of that narrow context Alsbrook controls and Title II is not valid Section 5 legislation. That analysis seems to me inconsistent with Lane's as-applied approach, and it conflicts with the Eleventh Circuit's recent Florida International University opinion. This begs for rehearing en banc.

Disability Law Spurs Elections by Mail

See this article by that title in the Pensacola News-Journal. It begins:

When Escambia County residents decide this fall whether they want to extend the local option sales tax, they'll be able to vote from home for the first time in county history. The mail-ballot election was prompted in part by a federal law that requires each precinct before fall elections to be equipped with voting machines adapted for the disabled and every polling place to comply with access standards of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Sometimes I Wish I Still Lived in Washington

See this press release:

ADA Watch and the National Coalition for Disability Rights (NCDR) are pleased to announce that three-time Grammy Award- winner, Bruce Hornsby will headline the Disability Rights Concert at the Music Center at Strathmore outside Washington, DC on Tuesday, June 21, 2005. Very special guests, Sweet Honey in the Rock will also perform. Reserved seating tickets go on sale Thursday, May 26th at 10 a.m. at the Music Center at Strathmore box office at http://www.strathmore.org or by phone at 301-581- 5100. Special ticketing packages including reception with the artists are available at 202-661-4722 or online at http://www.ADAWatch.org.

The event will recognize 15 years of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and feature a photographic history, Images of the Disability Rights Struggle, as captured by photojournalist Tom Olin.

Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan and other dignitaries will make remarks. The Honorary Co-Chairs of the Disability Rights Concert include: Senator Tom Harkin, Senator Edward Kennedy, Senator Patrick Leahy, Congressman Michael Castle, Congressman Steny Hoyer, and Congressman Chris Van Hollen.

Proceeds from these special performances will benefit ADA Watch/NCDR, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit coalition of hundreds of organizations united to promote and strengthen the human rights of people with physical, mental, cognitive and developmental disabilities.

Bruce Hornsby won the Best New Artist Grammy Award in 1986 and went on to sell more than 10 million albums worldwide with a string of hits including "Mandolin Rain," "The Valley Road," "Every Little Kiss," "A Night on the Town," and the socially conscious No. 1 single "(That's Just) The Way It Is."

Sweet Honey in The Rock is a Grammy Award-winning African American female a cappella ensemble that joins powerful voices and hand percussion instruments to create a blend of lyrics, movement and narrative that variously relate history, point the finger at injustice, encourage activism, and sing the praises of love. The music speaks out against oppression and exploitation of every kind. The septet, whose words are simultaneously interpreted in uniquely expressive American Sign Language, demands a just and humane world for all.

Britain: Turning Welfare "On its Head"

See this article from the Guardian. A taste:

Disabled people should be given the money and support to buy and manage the care and support they need to lead independent lives, a centre-left thinktank said today.

The government's overhaul of the welfare system should be based on the principle that disabled people are best placed to identify how to meet their own needs, according to the thinktank Demos.

Its report, produced in partnership with the disability charity Scope, called for the welfare system to be "turned on its head" by placing disabled people in control of support services rather than leaving them as passive recipients of state benefits.

More Irish Disability Law Smackdown

See this article. A taste:

Disability groups today vowed to continue their fight against the new Disability Bill as it entered the Seanad.

A noisy protest was held outside Leinster House as the legislation finally passed through all stages in the Dáil after eight months of debate.

The Bill, which will now be considered by the Seanad on Tuesday, is expected to be made law before the summer recess on July 1.

Disability Federation of Ireland chief executive John Dolan said people with disabilities remained “extremely unhappy” with the legislation.

He told several hundred protestors: “Society must change to suit us, not us change to suit society. We need basic rights and services to take our place in mainstream society.”

* * *

The Bill, which promises to deliver high-quality support services for people with disabilities, has been slammed over its failure to include rights-based access to services.

Waterstone on the Rest of the ADA

New on SSRN: Michael Waterstone has posted The Untold Story of the Rest of the Americans with Disabilities Act, forthcoming in the Vanderbilt Law Review in 2006. (Nice Paul Harvey allusion!) The abstract:

Nearing the fifteenth birthday of the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA"), most commentators believe that its overall effects have been disappointing. By this point, there is a standard set of explanations for the ADA's failures: the Supreme Court's limiting decisions relating to the definition of disability, the limits of antidiscrimination law, and the economic failures of the accommodation mandate. These explanations come with corresponding recommendations for disability law reform. This Article challenges the assumption, nearly universal until now, that these explanations and recommendations apply equally to the entire ADA. This Article argues that these explanations are based on an employment law-dominated (Title I) narrative, and are incomplete and/or incorrect when applied to the ADA's two other major parts (Title II, relating to public services, and Title III, relating to places of public accommodation). Through a first-ever descriptive quantitative analysis of Title II and III cases, this Article shows that these cases - unlike Title I cases - fare relatively well in the courts compared with other civil rights statutes. This Article suggests that the major issue confronting Titles II and III is underenforcement at the private and public levels, and concludes with a discussion of how to strengthen those enforcement mechanisms.

Fifth Circuit on the ADA, Parking Placards, and State Sovereign Immunity

The Fifth Circuit yesterday issued an odd opinion in Meyers v. Texas, an ADA Title II case challenging the imposition of a fee for handicapped parking placards. The plaintiffs had brought suit in state court, and the state removed to federal court. The Fifth Circuit held, following (but also arguably extending) the Supreme Court's decision in Lapides v. Bd. of Regents, 535 U.S. 613 (2002), that the state waived its sovereign immunity from suit by removing the case to federal court. The state had argued that this case was different from Lapides, because in this case the state claimed sovereign immunity from suit in both state and federal court. As a result, removal here could not be a strategic effort to move into a forum that, unlike the original forum, lacked jurisdiction. The Fifth Circuit rejected that argument and held that Lapides controlled. But the court also stated that the state might retain sovereign immunity against liability -- even though it had waived its sovereign immunity against suit -- and that the sovereign immunity against liability was a matter of state law to be determined on remand (even though the claim was a federal claim).

This case is at least in some tension with out-of-circuit precedent, so if the interlocutory posture of the case doesn't stand in the way, the issue might get further review.

Gone Fishin'

I'll be out of the country (hopefully learning lots about Swedish disability policy) until Wednesday night, so don't expect much if any posting until then.

New Disability Books

A couple of more disability books have crossed my desk. I haven't read any of them yet, so no vouching here, but they look at least prima facie interesting:

Ruth O'Brien, author of Voices from the Edge and Crippled Justice, two well-received books about disability discrimination law, has a new, more theoretical offering, entitled Bodies in Revolt: Gender, Disability, and a Workplace Ethic of Care.




Pomo types may enjoy the edited volume by Shelley Lynn Tremain, Foucault and the Government of Disability.




And for those who just like a disability-law good read, Harriet McBryde Johnson's Too Late to Die Young: Nearly True Tales From a Life may be just the ticket.

ADA Parking Placards Case in Nebraska Supreme Court

See this article on the forthcoming argument.

Serial ADA Litigation: The Good Side

See this article. Some excerpts:

To settle a lawsuit filed by a disabled resident, the city of Pacific Grove has agreed to spend $250,000 to remove architectural barriers and make other improvements over the next decade.

Mary Marques-Caramico sued the city and eight local businesses in 2003, saying they violated the federal Americans with Disabilities Act by not providing adequate access for the disabled. Marques-Caramico has muscular dystrophy and gets around town in a motorized wheelchair.

Six of the eight businesses have reached out-of-court settlements with Marques-Caramico and another settlement is near, Marques-Caramico said.

* * *

The city agreed to spend $250,000 to:

• Evaluate all city-owned lots and curbside parking on Lighthouse Avenue and develop a draft handicapped parking plan within six months.

• Upgrade curbs and sidewalks in commercial areas and some mixed-use areas.

• Provide paths in Washington Park except for the undeveloped areas.

• Provide parking spaces for disabled and upgrade restaurants in the park.

• Upgrade offices, meeting rooms and restrooms at the municipal golf course and provide parking spaces for the disabled at the golf course and cemetery.

• Upgrade the exterior women's restroom at City Hall.

• Improve access to the Old Bath House restaurant, which is owned by the city and leased to a private business.

• Provide a suitable counter for the disabled at the Fire Department.

• Train city employees and volunteers on accessibility issues.

Many of the proposed changes were presented to the City Council in October by a city advisory committee.

Marques-Caramico said the settlement is a good start.

"The city needs a lot of work, but with budget problems, I know they can't do everything," she said.

When the suits were filed in 2003, local media and some business owners criticized Marques-Caramico, comparing her to full-time litigants such as Jared Molski and George Louie.

Molski has filed so many ADA lawsuits across California that a federal judge declared him a "vexatious litigant" -- a person who files malicious or abusive lawsuits. One attorney countersued Molski, saying it was suspicious that he visited three restaurants in one day, allegedly suffering identical accidents at each.

Last year, Molski sued more than a dozen Monterey County businesses, including at least eight in Carmel and several in Monterey.

But Marques-Caramico's attorney, Keith Cable, says his client does not fall into that category, and her lawsuits arose from obstacles she encountered while trying to get around her own town. She has not filed other ADA lawsuits and says all payments she received in the local settlements were less than $5,000.

"She was made out to be a pariah," Cable said.

Marques-Caramico said she attended meetings and tried to get the city's ADA committee to respond to issues she raised, and filed suit only after she was ignored.

Mostly, she said, she sued because others can't.

"I think the way Molski and Louie are going about it is all wrong." she said. "But it is very difficult for people with a disability to fight for their civil rights. Many of them are ill or weak, so it's up to a few people who can handle it to change things. If a person has difficulty getting into a restroom, most disabled people will turn around and don't fight it."

Travis on the Transformative Potential of Employment Discrimination Law

Just out on Westlaw: Michelle A. Travis, Recapturing the Transformative Potential of Employment Discrimination Law, 62 Wash. & Lee L. Rev. 3 (2005). From the intro:

When Congress enacted the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (the ADA), lawmakers envisioned a tool that would redesign the conventional workplace. The ADA not only prohibits most private employers from acting on invidious animus, but also requires employers to actively modify the workplace to accommodate individuals with disabilities. According to the ADA's primary sponsor, the statute represents the "twentieth century Emancipation Proclamation for all persons with disabilities." The United States Supreme Court provided a similarly reconstructionist vision of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII) when the Court endorsed the disparate impact theory, which requires employers to replace facially neutral practices that disproportionately affect protected groups. The Court recognized that eliminating employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, and national origin would require more than just preventing employers from prejudiced decisionmaking. Achieving workplace equality also would require employers to remove all "artificial, arbitrary, and unnecessary barriers," and to eliminate the "built-in headwinds" of the conventional work environment. Because both Title VII's disparate impact theory and the ADA's accommodation mandate were intended to displace established social norms, both statutes properly are characterized as "transformative law."

Initially, advocates were very optimistic that the ADA and Title VII would help restructure the workplace to provide meaningful access and new employment opportunities. As many scholars have explained, however, this hope has gone significantly unrealized. The inability of these laws to fundamentally restructure the workplace is particularly evident with respect to traditional methods of organizing the when, where, and how of work performance, including the default preferences for full-time positions, unlimited hours, rigid work schedules, an uninterrupted worklife, and performance of work at a central location. This bundle of related default organizational structures--referred to collectively as the "full-time face-time norm"--frequently excludes individuals from the workplace, particularly individuals with disabilities and women with significant caregiving responsibilities. Unfortunately, neither the ADA nor Title VII has done much to transform this exclusionary norm.

One of the reasons for this disappointing result is that judges have interpreted the ADA and Title VII through the lens of "workplace essentialism." For either the ADA or Title VII to restructure the workplace successfully, judges first must envision an alternative. To do so, judges must be able--and willing--to parse out the malleable ways that job tasks are organized from the actual tasks that comprise the essence of the job itself. Judges repeatedly have demonstrated an inability--or simply an unwillingness--to take this step. Instead, judges have assumed that jobs are defined at least in part by the default organizational structures that make up the full-time face-time norm, thereby placing those structures beyond the reach of antidiscrimination law and undermining the law's transformative potential. Although this type of workplace essentialism plays a different doctrinal role in ADA accommodation cases and Title VII disparate impact cases, the analytic error is similar in both contexts. Just as the teacher in Harry Chapin's song refused to acknowledge the little boy's suggestion that flowers are still flowers even if painted in many different colors, so judges have refused to acknowledge that a job is still a job even with many different designs for when, where, and how the tasks are performed.

Judicial interpretation of the ADA and Title VII through the lens of workplace essentialism is an example of what Professor Linda Hamilton Krieger has described as "capture through construal." Capture occurs when entrenched norms affect judges' statutory construction in ways that constrain the law's full implementation. These entrenched norms operate as "taken-for-granted background rules," which "systematically skew the interpretations of transformative legal rules so that those rules increasingly come to resemble the normative and institutional systems they were intended to displace." In other words, the danger is not only that the entrenched norm of the essentialized workplace is undermining judges' ability to interpret the ADA and Title VII to realize these laws' full transformative potential. The further risk is that these judicial interpretations are, in turn, relegitimating and reifying the very same default workplace structures that the laws were designed to subvert.

Because the ADA and Title VII have fallen short of initial expectations, some scholars have moved away from antidiscrimination law as a primary tool for achieving workplace equality. Others have continued to suggest future roles for employment discrimination law, while recognizing that no tool can be the single answer to such a multifaceted problem. This Article joins the latter group by identifying a common analytic error in both ADA and Title VII case law and articulating an interpretation that would allow individuals with disabilities and women with caregiving responsibilities to recapture some of the untapped transformative potential of employment discrimination law.

EdWeek on Private Schools and IDEA Reauthorization

See this article.

More News on Goodman Cert. Grant

See this Linda Greenhouse piece in the NY Times.

SCOTUSBlog on Goodman Grant

Kevin Russell, who worked on a number of Title II abrogation cases while at DOJ, has this interesting extended analysis of Goodman here.

News on Goodman Cert. Grant

See this AP dispatch.

Supreme Court Grants Cert in ADA Title II Case

In today's orders list, the Supreme Court granted cert. in United States v. Georgia, No. 04-1203, and Goodman v. Georgia, No. 04-1236, consolidated petitions that challenge the Eleventh Circuit's ruling that Title II of the ADA, as applied to the state prison context, is not proper Section 5 legislation. The Court took no action on Columbia River Corr. Inst. v. Phiffer, No. 04-947, a petition out of the Ninth Circuit raising similar issues. The Court is likely holding Phiffer for its resolution of Goodman. (Disclosure: I'm one of the counsel in these cases.)

Using California Law to Get Accommodations on the MCAT

See this article in the San Francisco Chronicle. A taste:

An Oakland judge has cleared the way for California students with learning disorders to use the state's powerful disability law to seek more time on the nationwide entrance exam for medical schools.

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Ronald Sabraw ruled Thursday that California law, which provides broader protections for the disabled than the comparable federal law, governs a suit filed last July against the Association of American Medical Colleges.

He said the ruling could give some California students an advantage over test-takers in other states, but the testing board could make a notation on their scores to alert medical school admissions officers. A lawyer for the disabled students did not object to that procedure, which is already used for students who qualify for accommodations under federal law.

* * *

The suit was filed on behalf of students with conditions such as dyslexia who submitted their medical and educational records to the association and asked for accommodations on the test but were turned down on the grounds that they weren't severely disabled. The most common accommodation is additional time, typically 50 percent more than the time allowed to other students, Tollafield said.

Test administrators "take the fact that learning-disabled students have been successful (in school) and say it proves they don't need accommodations, '' the lawyer said.

The federal Americans with Disabilities Act requires reasonable accommodations for anyone who is "substantially limited'' in a major life activity, such as learning. California law covers those who are "limited'' in a major life activity. The difference between the two laws has increased because of a series of U.S. Supreme Court rulings in recent years narrowly defining the scope of the ADA.

An example of why state law can be particularly important in this area.

Right to Life/Right to Die in the UK

See this article from the Guardian. A taste:

Who has the right to decide whether a patient's quality of life is too poor to warrant life-prolonging treatment?

That question will be put to three appeal court judges today in one of the most important right-to-life appeals to come before the English courts in recent years.

The judges, headed by the master of the rolls, Lord Phillips, will have to decide where the line is drawn between patients' autonomy and doctors' duty to act in what they believe is their patients' best interests.

The General Medical Council is appealing against a high court ruling last July that its guidance to doctors on the withholding and withdrawing of life-prolonging treatment is unlawful in some respects and breaches human rights.

That ruling was won by Leslie Burke, who has a progressive degenerative disease which, while leaving him fully sentient, will eventually deprive him of the power to feed himself.

Mr Burke, 45, from Lancaster, who has cerebellar ataxia, took the case to court because he feared that when the time came doctors would decide his quality of life was insufficient to warrant prolonging it.

He feared reaching the point where, unable to communicate, he would be denied food and water and would take two to three weeks to die of starvation or thirst.

The case is seen as so important that the health secretary, Patricia Hewitt, the Disability Rights Commission, the official solicitor, the Catholic Bishops Conference for England and Wales, Patient Concern, Medical Ethics Alliance, Alert - Defending Vulnerable People's Right to Live, and the British section of the World Federation of Doctors Who Respect Human Life have all been granted permission to make submissions to the court.

More Unraveling of Irish Disability Bill

See this article, which begins:

THREE disability groups have pulled out of a consultation forum because of the Government’s failure to take any account of their wishes in the controversial new Disability Bill.

The Forum for People With Disabilities, the National Association for People with an Intellectual Disability (NAMHI) and the National Parents and Siblings Alliance (NPSA), have agreed their core needs are not being addressed in the bill which has gone through committee and is due for report stage in the Dáil.

This is the second Disability Bill in four years to provoke outrage among disability groups.

All three are leading members of the Disability Legislation Consultation Group (DLCG), which represents 550 organisations and was set up by the Government to ensure consultation and make proposals on the bill which was announced by the Government last September.

Education for Children With Disabilities in Australia

See this article, which begins:

Victoria's integration program for students with disabilities and impairments is unravelling in the face of political and bureaucratic inertia.

An investigation by The Sunday Age reveals the once- innovative program is struggling after years of inadequate resourcing and professional training, departmental and specialist staff cuts, poor accountability and budget-driven tightening of eligibility criteria.

Psychologists, speech pathologists, integration teachers, specialist teachers, principals and parents report worsening discrepancies and inequities in individual funding allocations. They warn some schools are starting to wash their hands of integration because it is too hard.

Pelosi on SSDI Cuts Under Social Security Privatization

See this press release. From Rep. Pelosi's statement:

Just two weeks ago, President Bush assured Americans that disability benefits would not be cut under his privatization plan. Yesterday, a White House spokesman said disability cuts are still on the table. Either disability benefits will be cut or they won't be. Which is it, Mr. President?

Very Sad News

Disability law scholar Adam Milani died yesterday due to complications from surgery. He was just a very good person and will be missed very much by very many. Mercer law school's press release can be found here.

Judge Says Blind Couple Can Open Day-Care Center

See this article by that title in the Rocky Mountain News. The article begins:

Christine and Thomas Hutchinson can open their day-care center after all, if the state doesn't appeal a judge's ruling that their blindness can't prevent them from obtaining a state license.

They would be the first blind people licensed to operate a day-care center in Colorado, their attorney said, adding that other states have permitted similar operations without fighting in the courts.

Good Article on New British Disability Discrimination Act

The article is written from a lawyer's perspective.

Irish Disability Law Smackdown

See this article, which begins:

The Sinn Féin leader in the Dáil, Caoimghín Ó Caoláin, was ordered to leave the House after angry exchanges with the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, on the Disability Bill earlier today.

Mr Ó Caoláin said the umbrella group for the disability sector, the DLCG, was meeting today to consider the possibility of withdrawing from engagement with the Government on the bill.

Mr Ahern said that the Government had discussed the group's five demands yesterday and said he would be writing to the group soon.

However, he said there was one amendment they were seeking, to give people a right to resources, which had never been brought in anywhere and could not be introduced in this country.

Mr Ó Caoláin asked why Ireland could not give a lead in this matter by introducing such legislation.

Mr Ahern accused him of being 'entirely dishonest' on the issue, and after further heated exchanges the Ceann Comhairle warned Mr Ó Caoláin that if he opened his mouth one more time he would be asked to leave the House.

Blanck on Colker's Disability Pendulum

Peter Blanck has this review of Ruth Colker's new book on the Law and Politics Book Review.

Latest News on NCLB and Kids with Disabilities

See this article in the Times, which begins:

Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings announced guidelines yesterday for states that plan to take advantage of new, short-term flexibility in the way special-education students are tested under the federal education law, No Child Left Behind.

To gain the extra flexibility, Ms. Spellings said, states must show that they are in compliance with other facets of the law and that their efforts to raise the achievement of students with disabilities are working.

Some state education officials and advocates for special-education students quickly criticized the requirements as too stringent.

Until now, the Bush administration has allowed only 1 percent of all students, those most severely handicapped, to be given special tests to assess whether they are comprehending material at grade level. All other disabled students have been required to take the same tests as the general student body.

Last month, Ms. Spellings said the Department of Education would give some states increased flexibility, allowing them to administer alternative tests to an additional 2 percent of students, those who have extreme difficulties with standard instruction and assessment.

Officials confirmed the offer yesterday, but only on a short-term basis, which was left unspecified. They also set a deadline of June 1 for states to apply for the concessions and said they would take effect next school year. In addition, Ms. Spellings restated the department's commitment to allocate $14 million in technical assistance and other help to eligible states.

Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Adopted

See this news release, which begins:

The Ontario legislature today passed a historic law that will make Ontario a world leader in breaking down barriers for people with disabilities.

“This landmark legislation marks the start of a new era of accessibility in Ontario,” said Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Dr. Marie Bountrogianni. “The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act will create an accessible, inclusive society where every Ontarian has the opportunity to work, play, learn and otherwise participate to their full potential.”

The act will take effect on royal assent and will require government to work with partners to jointly develop standards to be achieved in stages of five years or less, leading to a fully accessible Ontario in 20 years. Standards will be set in both the public and private sectors to address the full range of disabilities – including physical, sensory, hearing, mental health, developmental and learning. New standards could include:

• Accessible pedestrian routes and entrances into buildings
• Lower counter heights at cash registers to accommodate wheelchairs
• Large print menus in restaurants for the visually-impaired
• Staff training in serving customers with learning disabilities.

“We are firmly on the path towards an accessible Ontario, where our quality of life is enriched by the inclusion of all, and our economy benefits from the contribution of all,” Bountrogianni said. “People with disabilities have been pushing for strong accessibility legislation for 10 years and we are delivering.”

Thanks to my former student Ravi Malhotra for passing this along.

More Recent Disability Books

In addition to the Kohrman book discussed in the last post, two other recent books of relevance have crossed my desk: Ruth Colker's The Disability Pendulum: The First Decade of the Americans with Disabilities Act; and the reissued edition (with a new epilogue) of David and Sheila Rothman's The Willowbrook Wars: Bringing the Mentally Disabled into the Community. I haven't had a time to read these yet, though I read the earlier edition of the Rothman book, and I am familiar with the content of the Colker book (much of which has been previously published in law reviews). The Rothman book is an exceptionally interesting treatment of one of the most important deinstitutionalization cases of the 1970s. Colker literally wrote the book on disability law (she's now written several), and her treatment of the ADA's first decade does a great job of presenting the point of view that the statute's effectiveness has been limited by a harsh reception in the judiciary.

New Book on Disability in Modern China

I just finished reading Matthew Kohrman's new book Bodies of Difference: Experiences of Disability and Institutional Advocacy in Modern China. Kohrman, a Stanford Anthropology professor, has written a book that is way too jargon-heavy, but if you dig through the verbiage you will learn lots of interesting facts and analysis about the response to disability by mainland China's government and society in the post-Cultural Revolution era. It's certainly not an easy read, but I'd recommend it to those who are interested in understanding more about disability policy in non-western nations.

Work Incentives for People with Disabilities in Israel

See this piece in Haaretz.

United Arab Emirates Foregoes Job Quota for People with Disabilities

See this article, which begins:

The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs has withdrawn an earlier proposal to impose a two per cent job quota on employment of people with special needs in private companies which have more than 50 employees and three per cent in the government and public sector, a senior official confirmed yesterday.

Dr Ali bin Abdullah Al Kaabi, Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, said that the government will not impose any quota on employment of the disabled either in the private or the public sector.

“The ministry has drafted a new law on the rights of the disabled people and has not included any provision compelling private establishment to fulfil a quota on recruiting individuals with disabilities,” he said.

This proposal, however, was included in the initial draft law, the first in the UAE that secures the rights of the people with special needs in equal treatment, health services, education, employment, public and cultural and sports life, suitable and disabled friendly environment, transport, driving and parkings, housing as well as rehabilitation and training.

“The law will outline the rights of the disabled and stipulate the regulations that need to be observed by establishments,” the minister said, noting that one of his priorities is the welfare of the disabled.

Not Dead Yet Brief in Gonzales v. Oregon

You can find the brief of Not Dead Yet and a number of other disability organizations supporting the petitioner (the federal government) in the Oregon "Death with Dignity" case here.

Discontent Over Proposed Irish Disability Law

See this report, which begins:

Organisations working with the disabled have accused the Government of letting them down in relation to the new Disability Bill.

The legislation is expected to be rushed through the Dáil before the end of current term despite a number of concerns being raised by various organisations.

Disability groups are particularly concerned that the bill does not set out legally enforceable rights for people with disabilities.

The Government is resisting a rights-based approach as it believed this could lead to a raft of court cases from disabled people demanding access to services.

Ragged Edge on Disability Blogs

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