on summary judgment), employers won 92 percent of the time. Many of these unfavorable rulings
I did a lot of the legwork, assembled the coalition, and worked on the draft of the law. It passed and got signed and led to laws that eight years later allowed us to amend the ADA.
10
worked on the draft of the law. It passed and got signed and led to laws that eight years later allowed us to amend the ADA.” Te California law, Assembly
Bill 2222, sponsored by Assembly woman Sheila Kuehl, D-Los Angeles, strengthened California’s protections against discrimination based on dis- ability that were limited by the U.S. Supreme Court decisions. Several states followed suit and eventually the U.S. Congress passed the ADA Amendments Act of 2008, allowing for a broader interpretation of a disability. When asked if her disability is
what led her being drawn to combating social ills, Center says it wasn’t intentional. “I didn’t set out to be a reformer.
I was drawn to the problems in society and saw that I could use the law to fix them.” Tis attraction to help others and fix
the problems in society brought her to the Legal Aid Society in San Francisco, where she has worked for 17 years, now as senior staff attorney and director of its disability rights program. “What I like about working in disability rights is that I’m always
learning new things,” she says. “We get to be creative and figure out where the law is going to go, and learn a lot about people and what they can do.” Her first undertaking at Legal
Aid, which is still ongoing, was the LIBRA project (Lifting Invisible Barriers Trough Reasonable Accommodation). Reasonable accom- modation is an adjustment made in a system for an individual based on a proven need. It would include wheel- chair access, sign language interpret- ers, and access to written documents for the visually impaired. Representative among her cases are
workers who were hospitalized and thereafter terminated; an individual whose medication mimicked intoxica- tion, causing job termination; another person with a psychiatric condition who was unnecessarily locked up by police for 72 hours; and a mail clerk born with a cognitive disability, who was terminated because he performed his duties too slowly. Prejudices against those with
disabilities die hard, she says. A study conducted by the American Bar Association found that in ADA employment cases filed since 1992 and resulting in final case decisions (most
DIVERSITY & THE BAR® JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013
for the plaintiffs, she says, are the result of judges ruling either that the plaintiffs were not limited enough to be considered disabled, or so limited that they were unqualified. “A person can have a disability
and can also be qualified,” she says. “And persons with disabilities should be protected from unfair discrimi- nation. In the words of the ADA, ‘the Nation’s proper goals regarding individuals with disabilities are to assure equality of opportunity, full participation, independent living, and economic self-sufficiency for such individuals.’ ” Te civil rights model of inclusion
continues to be more of an ideal, she says, and most cases are currently decided on a medical model. “Our judges, often older, white
males, tend to view disability only in the context of disability benefits, benefits for people who cannot work,” she says, “and the legal battles usually turn on whether the appli- cant has submitted sufficient medi- cal proof to demonstrate total and unchanging incapacity.” Some of her recent battles defend-
ing the rights of the disabled include an effort to require Law School Admissions Test (LSAT) administra- tion to provide physical accommoda- tion to test takers; the launch of a disability rights clinic open to the public once a week at a South Berkeley think tank dedicated to helping those with disabilities in South Berkeley; and the overincarceration problem. “Tere’s a big movement to support
people who are leaving prison, the re- entry movement,” she says. “I’d like to figure out how to help meet the needs of those who have disabilities, and more than 25 percent of the prison population have them.” D&B
Tom Calarco is a freelance writer based in Altamonte Springs, Fla.
MCCA.COM
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