Comments on Disability Law 2.0 -- Tan*, Rested, and Ready: Eleventh Circuit: Mental Retardation is Not a Dis...

What?! It is an embarassment that our country eve...

2007-05-25T15:06:00.000-07:00

What?! It is an embarassment that our country even has to have an Americans with Disabilites Act--now we are not even using it to protect or aid people who have disabilities!!

As a person who has spent my entire professional l...

2007-05-25T14:09:00.000-07:00

As a person who has spent my entire professional life working as an advocate with persons with disabilities, mostly mental retardation, I am appalled at this decision. We work very hard to help people identify and realize their dreams. Clearly, this man has done so, at least in so far as driving and working represent his dreams. It bothers me that the judges don't see communication, socialzation, and learning as "major life activities". Would they be willing to forgo these activities? Communication is central to all that humans do! Perhaps the man so dismissively described by these judges could assist them in learning what "major life activity" means. He clearly has a better grasp of it than they do! It appears that the judges feel that only those persons confined to institutions are covered by the ADA. They have already ruled that if one's disability is substantially corrected by on-going medication, one is not disabled. Of course, if one is unable to obtain the medication because one's job is gone and car repossessed, too bad. There is still no disability because, if one would only take the medication, the disability could be cured! Such circular reasoning!

I am a Board member with the Mahoning County Brd,o...

2007-05-25T10:52:00.000-07:00

I am a Board member with the Mahoning County Brd,of MRDD.
I have 4 adopted mentally retarded children, and someone is saying that is not a disability, come spend 24 hours here and tell me then it is not a disability!!!

I am confused and concerned about the courts decis...

2007-05-24T16:54:00.000-07:00

I am confused and concerned about the courts decision. Mental Retardaion is the one most significant disability that has no cure!! As a country we all should be outraged.

For years people with the label of mental retardat...

2007-05-24T16:22:00.000-07:00

For years people with the label of mental retardation were forcibly institutionalized, sterilized, over-medicated and brutally stripped of their rights as human beings -- and now the ultimate disgrace has occurred with this decision declaring that people with that label aren’t even protected under our nation’s civil rights act for folks with disabilities. Shame on these judges!

How does the court define mental retardation? If t...

2007-05-24T16:15:00.000-07:00

How does the court define mental retardation? If this derrogatory label is not suffient in itself to proof disability we need to address how 'being substantially limited as to “major life activities” under the ADA ' is measured? What actually constitute major life activity? How much of a 'mental retardation' does one need to have?

Confusing! So, the court recognizes him having a ...

2007-05-16T14:36:00.000-07:00

Confusing! So, the court recognizes him having a "mental retardation," but they don't see that the label itself comes with the widely-held perception of limits, and widely-practiced discrimination. If he's labeled, that should mean he'd be covered by the ADA.

Oh. My. God.

2007-05-15T22:51:00.000-07:00

Oh. My. God.