Settlement Agreement: Carnival Corporation
Cruise ship giant Carnival Corp. will make changes to improve accessibility on 62 ships and in its online reservations system under what U.S. Justice Department officials are calling a comprehensive, landmark settlement agreement under the Americans with Disabilities Act announced Thursday.
Consent Decree: University of Michigan | (Complaint)
Building Materials Manufacturing Corp to Pay $62,500 to Settle EEOC Disability Lawsuit
Building Materials Manufacturing Corporation, a roofing materials manufacturer headquartered in Wayne, N.J., will pay $62,500 to settle a disability discrimination lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
McLane Foodservice to Pay $40,000 to Settle EEOC Disability Discrimination Lawsuit
McLane Foodservice, Inc., which supplies foodservice deliveries to fast-food chain restaurants, has agreed to pay $40,000 to settle a disability discrimination lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
EEOC Sues Vita Plus for Disability Discrimination
Vita Plus Corporation, an agricultural company with a facility in Gagetown, Mich., violated federal law by discriminating against a truck driver because of his disability, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit it filed on July 16.
Atlantic City businesses reach settlement over disability access
Press of Atlantic City
Five Atlantic City hotels or hotel-connected businesses reached settlements with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the U.S. Justice Department.
For more than four years the department reviewed several hotels and casinos in Atlantic City to ensure that they are in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
Five businesses were found in violation of the act and settled with the government, including Resorts Casino Hotel, Tropicana Casino and Resort, Sheraton Atlantic City Convention Center Hotel, The Rainforest Café at the former Trump Plaza, and Trump Taj Mahal, according to a news release.
Paraplegic alleges ADA violations at shopping center
The Louisiana Record
A disabled Orleans Parish man is suing a New Orleans business, alleging non-compliance with disability law.
Thad Tatum filed a lawsuit July 15 against Ashley Tran in U.S. District Court Eastern District of Louisiana, alleging a public shopping center does not comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Indeterminate leave is not ‘reasonable’ accommodation required by ADA
Finding that regular attendance was an essential function of an AT&T employee’s job and that a request for extended indeterminate leave—assuming she made such a request—would not be a request for a “reasonable” accommodation, a federal district court in Texas granted summary judgment for AT&T on an ADA failure-to-accommodate claim asserted by an employee whose ongoing, erratic absences led to her discharge. The employee’s retaliation claim also failed as a matter of law (Solis v AT&T, WDTex, July 9, 2015, Guaderrama, D.).
RealEstateRama
The Justice Department announced today that developer Biafora’s Inc. (Biafora) and several affiliated companies have agreed to pay $205,000 and make substantial retrofits to remove accessibility barriers at multifamily apartment complexes. This agreement resolves the United States’ claims that Biafora violated the Fair Housing Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act by building 23 apartment complexes in West Virginia and Pennsylvania with a variety of features that made them inaccessible to persons with disabilities.
Lincoln Park doctor settles claim for failing to provide sign language interpreter
Southgate News Herald
A Lincoln Park doctor’s office is one of two Michigan practices that have reached a settlement after allegedly violating the American Disabilities Act by not providing sign language interpreters to patients who are deaf, U.S. Attorney Barbara L. McQuade announced.
The U.S. Attorney’s office determined that Arshad Pervez, who operates a medical office on West Outer Drive in Lincoln Park, informed a deaf individual who requested an appointment that the office would not provide an interpreter, denying the individual the opportunity to receive care. A complaint was also filed that Flint-area doctor, Srinivas Mukkamala, did not provide an interpreter for a deaf parent who arrived for an appointment for his young child and therefore could not
Investigations into both complaints revealed that the doctors were unlawful by not complying with ADA, which requires places of public accommodation — like medical care facilities — to provide sign language interpreters or other appropriate auxiliary aids and services to deaf and hard of hearing patients and their companions.
Concord, state advocates reflect on the ADA
Wicked Local Concord
For the estimated 750,000 Massachusetts residents living with disabilities, the Americans with Disabilities Act has left a massive legacy.
Reeve: Disabilities battle is not over - USA Today
USA TODAY
Civil rights issues have dominated headlines this year, each deserving of attention. But there is one issue that tends to be overshadowed year after year — one that impacts the largest minority group in the U.S., the disability community.
Is a Disability Lawsuit Coming to Your Property?
JD Supra (press release)
If you own or lease commercial property in Minnesota, you may be at risk of being named in a series of lawsuits targeting Minnesota business owners.
Why Lawsuits Are Being Filed
Commercial property owners and tenants across Minnesota are being struck with a spate of lawsuits alleging technical violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
In most cases, the plaintiff is a non-profit organization that has filed a flurry of ADA claims against Minnesota property owners. The plaintiff’s litigation plan is straightforward: a disabled individual allegedly visits a commercial property (like a strip mall or restaurant) looking to identify ADA violations. Such violations can include improperly striped parking lots or a doorway that is a few inches too narrow.
Changes and challenges for mental and behavioral health providers
Lexology
As Kentucky’s Senate Bill 192 highlights, coverage and treatment of substance abuse problems is dramatically changing as the current penal model is slowly being replaced with a treatment model. Even terminology for what has been called “drug addiction” is now referred to as a “substance disorder” problem. Behavioral health has become the new catchall name for both mental health and substance disorders. As substance disorders become medical problems rather than drug abuse problems, the Federal Mental Health Parity Act and the Affordable Care Act now mandate that substance disorders and mental health problems, which often go hand in hand, must be covered by health insurance just as medical problems are covered. As of January 1, 2015, these illnesses must also covered by Medicare and Medicaid. Paving the road for coverage, however, has not been easy as a wealth of new federal and state government regulations are creating a complicated framework with a host of changes for behavioral health providers. While Kentucky struggles to provide and pay for services for the 150,000+ new Medicaid beneficiaries, these new laws and regulations significantly affect not just behavioral health providers, but also employers as the struggle to treat individuals who suffer from these maladies is addressed.
Are Senators Blind to Disabled Workers? | Commentary
Roll Call (blog)
This week we’re celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which was passed to help people with disabilities have a fair shot at the American dream. I’m one of the people the law is supposed to help.
New York Lags Behind Nation on Helping People With Disabilities: Study
DNAinfo
This Sunday marks the 25th anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act, a wide-ranging civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability.
In New York City, we can thank the ADA for — among other things — curb cuts, Braille lettering at subway stations, closed captioning devices at movie theaters, wheelchair access to the top of the Empire State building and a disability unit at the Department of Education that investigates complaints of discrimination.
But data from a report by the Center for Independence of the Disabled, New York (CIDNY), out Friday, suggests the city is lagging behind New York state and the nation when it comes to addressing the issues of education and poverty among people with disabilities.