2002 Leadership Challenges on Employment Policy
Audio Conference Series - January 31, 2002
ADA - Supreme Court Interpretations Analysis and Implications
Featured speakers:
Moderator: James Schmeling
Associate Director, Law, Health Policy & Disability Center
College of Law, The University of Iowa
Peter Blanck
Director, Law, Health Policy & Disability Center
College of Law, The University of Iowa
Robert Silverstein
Director of the Center for the Study and Advancement of Disability Policy
Leonard Sandler
Co-Director, Law, Health Policy & Disability Center and Clinical Professor of Law
College of Law, The University of Iowa
Mark Zaiger
Attorney, Shuttleworth & Ingersoll, PLC
This presentation discusses:
- Old and New Paradigm of Disability Policy
- Summary of U.S. Supreme Court Decisions on the Americans with Disabilities Act
- Pennsylvania Department of Corrections v. Yaskey
- Bragdon v. Abbott
- Carolyn Cleveland v. Policy Management System
- Sutton v. United States; Murphy v. United Parcel Service; Albertsons v. Kirkenburg
- Olmstead v. L.C. by Zimring
- Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama v. Garrett
- PGA Tour, Inc. v. Martin
- Buckhannon Board and Care Home, Inc. v. WV Department of Health and Human Services - Analysis and Implications
Society has historically imposed attitudinal and institutional barriers that subject persons with disabilities to lives of unjust dependency, segregation, isolation, and exclusion. In response to challenges by persons with disabilities, their families, and other advocates, our nation's policymakers have slowly begun to react over the past quarter of a century. They have begun to recognize the debilitating effects of these attitudinal and institutional barriers on persons with disabilities and have rejected the "old paradigm" of persons in need of "fixing." A "new paradigm" of disability has emerged that considers disability as a natural and normal part of the human experience. Rather than focusing on "fixing" the individual, the "new paradigm" focuses on taking effective and meaningful actions to "fix" or modify the natural, constructed, cultural, and social environment. In other words, the focus of the "new paradigm" is on eliminating the attitudinal and institutional barriers that preclude persons with disabilities from fully participating in society's mainstream. In 1990, the "new paradigm" was explicitly articulated in the landmark American with Disabilities Act (ADA) and further refined in subsequent legislation.
In the past eighteen months, the Supreme Court has agreed to hear and rendered decisions regarding an unprecedented number of challenges to the interpretation of the ADA. This audio conference session examines recent Supreme Court decisions and pending cases before the Court in regard to the Americans with Disabilities Act. Implications for the ADA's definition of disability and reasonable accommodation, as well as for employment and state systems change activities generally, is the primary focus of the session.