Obama-Era DOJ Violated Free Speech Through Burdensome Demands for Disabled Access
CNSNews.com
In March, the University of California at Berkeley began removing 20,000 college lectures from the Internet. It did so in response to the Justice Department telling Berkeley that posting the lectures violated the Americans with Disabilities Act, because they were not fully accessible to the blind and deaf.
The Americans with Disabilities Act says that services do not have to be made accessible to the disabled if doing so would impose an “undue burden” on the provider. The Obama Justice Department paid only lip service to this provision in its August 30, 2016, letter telling Berkeley that it was in violation of Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act. It claimed there was no “undue burden” in forcing Berkeley to make all of those lectures available to the blind and deaf, even though the cost apparently would have exceeded $1 million, a prohibitive amount for a free web site that does not make a profit. Moreover, it claimed there was no “fundamental alteration” of the service required, even though the Justice Department’s demands for accessibility required more than just verbatim captioning or transcription, effectively requiring Berkeley to create new content. This gave short shrift to limits on the reach of the ADA, which does not require regulated entities to “fundamentally alter” their programs and services to accommodate the disabled.
Federal Judge OKs Autistic Inmate's Claims of Abuse
Courthouse News Service
A federal judge ruled that the Virginia Department of Corrections must face claims from an autistic man who says he was subjected to inhumane conditions while being held in solitary confinement for months solely because of his disorder.
Arizona Bill That Gives Businesses A Cure Period To Fix ADA Violations Signed Into Law
KJZZ
Senate Bill 1406 was supposed to be a compromise between the disability and business communities. But language was added that drastically changed the bill, upsetting many within the disability community. And last week it was signed into law.
The measure was cobbled together by Rep. Don Shooter months after thousands of Valley businesses were sued over parking violations stemming from the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The reasonable accommodation you can't afford to forget
The Business Journals
A sanitation worker had a heart condition that left him with a 20-pound lifting restriction. That restriction meant that the employee was unable to perform the essential functions of his job and, according to his employer, no reasonable accommodation was available to allow him to do so.
Once the employer learned that the lifting restriction would be permanent, the employee was fired. But in court, it was found that the employer forgot to consider one possible accommodation: reassignment.
Report: Employees with cancer face discrimination despite ADA revisions
HR Dive
- A new study found that employees with cancer face discrimination despite amendments to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), reports the American Journal of Managed Care (AJMC).
- The ADA was amended in 2009 to cover workers whose cancer is in remission, extending protections against workplace discrimination based on long-term effects of previous cancer. The study, published in the Journal of Oncology Practice, investigated discrimination allegations filed before and after the 2009 amendment. It found that workers in remission still faced discrimination based largely on reasonable accommodations.
- The study also found that the courts considered cases based on employment terms, such as denying promotions or forcing retirements, as having more merit than accommodation, hiring and termination allegations.
Another Denver venue hit with accessibility suit
IQ Magazine
A lawyer for the Pepsi Center has disputed claims it fails to meet provisions for deaf people by not providing open captioning on scoreboards, court documents reveal
Federal judge considers independent review of disabled voter access in Houston
JURIST
US District Judge Alfred H. Bennett [official website] on Saturday said he was considering initiating an independent review [AP report] of disabled voter access to polling locations in Houston. The judge's consideration comes as part of a lawsuit filed against Harris County in the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas [official website], which alleged the county failed to provide voting sites in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) [text], in violation of the Constitution. Among the factors allegedly contributing to the equal protection claim are the failure of Harris County to provide handicap parking, ramps, sidewalks and other accommodations for disabled citizens. According to Judge Bennett, the contemplated oversight will likely include a site-by-site examination of each polling place.
Voting rights continue to be a pressing issue. Earlier in March a three-judge panel of the US District Court for the Western District of Texas ruled [JURIST report] that the boundaries of three voting districts violated the Voting Rights Act and the Equal Protection Clause of the US Constitution. Also in March the US Supreme Court ruled [JURIST report] that Virginia's redistricting scheme must be examined for racial bias. In February the state of Georgia settled a lawsuit [JURIST report] against Secretary of State Brian Kemp over a voter registration law that would reject any application that did not exactly match personal identification information in state and federal databases.