South Shore Skeptics Link Library

 

Disability and Civil Rights

Legal and Enforcement Information

 

see also

Westlaw Overview of Disability Issues

Glossary of terms

Disability Organizations and Resources

Civil Rights (general heading)

Legal Resources (general heading)

 

Abuse of People With Disabilities

Sexual Violence Against Persons With Disabilities -- Center for Disease Control

 

ADA Bibliography ( Americans With Disabilties Act

 

ADA Document Center -- ADA Ohio

Documents ( Factsheets, Laws, Regs )

Other Internet Disability Sites

 

Americans With Disabilities Act Information Line at U.S. Dept. of Justice

800 - 514 - 0301 (voice) / 800 - 514 - 0383 (TDD)

 

ADA Homepage -- U.S. Justice Dept., Civil Rights Division

Enforcement Status Reports

Settlement Reports

Mediation

Filing a Complaint

 

Avoiding ADA Scams and Schemes -- Better Business Bureau

 

Recognizing phony "ADA-compliant" products, intimidatioon tactics by remodelers etc.

 

Choose, Right to --National Association for Rights Protection and Advocacy

 

Civil Rights Documents, Briefs, Books -- Findlaw.com

 

Complaints -- How and When To File an ADA Complaint

 

Disability Law Document Collection -- Cornell Law School

 

Disability Rights Page -- ACLU

 

Disability in the Workplace -- An Internet Primer (Cornell)

 

EdLaw -- Special Education law -- fulltext of key statutes and regs

EdLaw Library

Special Law

Employee Rights Under the ADA

 

Employment Discrimination, Law About -- Cornell Legal Information Inst.

 

Handicappeed Individuals -- Internet Law Library

 

Justice For All Email Network

 

Labeling -- right to refuse questionable or unwanted 'treatment' or drugs based on labeling/

Key Recommendations from draft Nat'l Council on Disability's Report on People Labeled with Psychiatric Disabilities.

 

"5.Eligibility for services in the community should never be contingent on participation in treatmen programs. People labeled with psychiatric disabilities should be able to select from a menu of independently available services and programs, including mental health services, housing, vocational training, and job placement, and should be free to reject any service or program."

Similar resources -- Nat'l Assoc. of Rights Protection and Advocacy.

 

Legislation and Policy on Information Technology Accommodation -

- General Services Administration

 

Legislative and Regulatory Trends -- American Bar Association

 

Mental Health Law, Bazelon Center for

 

Newsgroups: bit.listerv.ada-law

 

Psychiatric Disabilities, EEOC Guidelines on ( Equal Employment Opportunity Commission )

 

Resource Page, Giant Disability

 

Search Engines

Search All U.S. District Courts of Appeal for Disability Decisions

Search All U.S. Supreme Court Decisions for Disability Decisions

 

Social Security Disability, Law Explained -- atty. Michael Doran

 

Social Security Handbook (13th) Ed. fulltext -- SSA.gov

Socual Security Work Incentives "Redbook" online

 

 

Special Education, also

Vocational Rehabilitation -- federal regulations on client rights

Dept. of Education,U.S. Final Rules and Regs -- 1995-99

( State programs are mostly federally funded )

 

Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, U.S., Office of (OSERS)

 

Office of Special Education Programs

primary oversight / regulatory agency for federally funded special-ed programs for handicapped childern.

 

Rehabilitation Services Administration

 

Client Assistance Program (CAP)

 

Federally funded advocacy and legal assistance for handicapoed clients of state rehabilitation agencies who aren't getting service.

 

 

Supreme Court Decisions, U.S. on disability, recent, links to fulltext

 

University Affiliated Programs (AAUAP), American Association of

 

Attempts to iinject sound research-based principles "in order to ensure appropriate and effective services": to persons with disabilities -- as opposed to labeling and conjecture.

 

Yahoo Society and Culture -- Disabilities

Legal Issues -- Disabilities

 

---

Glossary of Terms

 

"ADA" refers to theAmericans With Disabilities Act of 1990. Primary federal law "to establish a clear and comprehensive prohibition of discrimination on the basis of disability." See summary.

 

Section 504 (of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973) prohibits employment discrimination, either by government or by private employers. Sectiun 504 is enforced by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

 

Discrimination refers to any unlawful exclusionary act based on disability, or any failure to provide legally required access.

 

Reasonable Accommodation is a term used in the ADA, and in in other civil rights laws, to denote any readily achievable means of achieving legally required access without "undue hardship" on the entity required to accommodate. Reasonable accommodations may be reached by the parties concerned, or by enforcement settlement agreements, or by administrative courts. Compliance guidelines are provided in technical assistance manuals issued by various agencies.

 

ADA-Qualified Person is one who qualifies for coverage under the ADA. This includes mental and physical handicaps, generally those lasting more than six months, but not drunken-ness, kleptomania, pedophilia etc. Handicaps due to age, such as difficulty walking or diabetes, are covered.

 

Technical Assistance refers to varieties of free information and hotlines provided by government-funded and non-profit sources, on cost-effective means to accommodate effectively. Dissemination is via hotlines, Web, and printed manuals.

 

Assistive Technology refers to hardware or software enabling a handicapped person to perform a job or other essential life function -- such as custom wheelchair controls or adaptive computer programs.

Ordinary tools such as spell-checkers qualify as assistive technology.

 

Rehabilitation Engineering includes the selection, design, testing and application of adaptive equipment and principles, by one specifically trained in available technologies. Rehab engineers typicallys solve problems of ergonomics, accoustics, lighting, optics, servomechanisms and

advanced prosthetics, custom controls and control software, telecommunications devices, customization of vehicles and lifts etc. A relatively new area is the application of desltop computers and adaptive software on the job, such as voice actuation.

 

Rehabilitation, vocational or otherwise, refers to the process of recovering from a disability, or regaining functionality in areas of major life function. Means may include physical therapy or retraining, assistive technology, various coping strategies, and and/or support networks.

 

Invisible Handicap refers to a condition not readily apparent to an observer, such as a visual impairment following a head injury. The term also refers to less politically visible handicaps, and to political discrimination in accommodating primarily the most visible handicaps.

 

The most common handicaps are invisible, including 2 million brain injuries per year due to auto accidents. "Invisible" handicaps also refer to conditions not widely recognized nor understood due to stereotyping. A limited brain injury may for example impair only the ability to form words quickly, or the ability to retrieve specific types of information -- yet the person may be written off as slow by inappropriate testing or evaluation. The ADA prohibits discrimination based on type of handicap.