Category Archives: Web News

Executive Committee’s Annual Report

Each year the Bar asks our section to provide an annual report regarding our sections activities.  Below, are highlights from this the 2017 annual report:

Activities and accomplishments:  This year, the Disability Law Section focused on gathering information from our section members in order to determine what services our membership would like the section to focus on.  The section partnered with the Bar to produce and conduct a survey of the section membership regarding desired services and priorities for the section’s future.  From this survey the section determined that its membership is most interested in the section working to provide information to its members through continuing legal education and the section’s website.  To that end the section implemented a new plan to further develop the section’s website and to post material for section members on the site regularly.  Additionally, the section began the planning process for a CLE which will be held at the beginning of 2018.  Throughout 2017 the section continued to advertise and seek applicants for it’s scholarship program, recruited new members to the executive committee and section, and co-sponsored events (like BOWLIO), which align with our section’s mission.

Budget:  The section’s budget is healthy and we are operating with a surplus.

Matters pending:  Planning the section’s CLE for early 2018 is the largest matter continuing to occupy the section’s executive committee.

Recommendations for 2018:  2018 will be a great year to focus on the priorities the section identified in 2017.  These priorities include putting on a half-day CLE with web-casting services and increasing the quality and quantity of informational content posted to the section website.

A Key To Web Accessibility

Check out this article about website accessibility:

Accessibility APIs: A Key To Web Accessibility By Léonie Watson & Chaals McCathie Nevile

“Web accessibility is about people. Successful web accessibility is about anticipating the different needs of all sorts of people, understanding your fellow web users and the different ways they consume information, empathizing with them and their sense of what is convenient and what frustratingly unnecessary barriers you could help them to avoid.”

July 2016

New Guidance from the US Department of Education on Civil Rights of Students with ADHD

The US Dept. of Education issued guidance in July clarifying schools’ obligation to provide equal education opportunities under §504 of the Rehabilitation Act to students with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).  The guidance clarifies the obligation of schools to evaluate students and provide services to students with ADHD based on their individualized needs, not just based on generalizations about the condition.  The guidance also clarifies that schools should look at students who experience behavioral challenges or present as unfocused or distractible as possibly in need of ADHD accommodations, and should pursue evaluation. The Department released a “Know your Rights” document that provides a brief overview of schools’ obligations to students with ADHD. You can see this document at http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/dcl-know-rights-201607-504.pdf

To see the full DOE guidance on ADHD, go to : http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/letters/colleague-201607-504-adhd.pdf

May 2016

EEOC Issues Guidance on Employer Provided Leave and the ADA

In May, the EEOC clarified and emphasized that employers may be required to approve leave for disabled employees as a reasonable accommodation even when that leave goes beyond the amount of leave generally provided pursuant to the employer’s policies.  Among other warnings, the guidance also specifies that employers will violate the ADA with “100% Healed” policies, (requiring employees with disabilities to have no medical restrictions before they can return to the job), if the employee can perform her job with or without reasonable accommodations, unless the accommodations would cause the employer an undue hardship.  For the full guidance, see https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/publications/ada-leave.cfm

April 28, 2016

New Accessible Technology Website

The Department of Justice has launched a new Accessible Technology section for ADA.gov, its Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Web site, to further assist people in understanding how the ADA applies to certain technologies, such as Web sites, electronic book readers, online courses, and point-of-sale devices.  Covered entities have long-standing obligations to make their programs, goods, services, and activities accessible—including those they provide online or via other technology.  The new web page compiles the Department’s technical assistance and guidance about accessible technology, as well as information about the Department’s accessible technology enforcement efforts, regulation development, and other federal accessible technology resources and initiatives.

Check it out here.

April 25, 2016

DOE Issues New Process for Total and Permanent Disability (TPD) Loan Discharge

A few weeks ago, the U.S. Department of Education announced a new process to proactively identify and assist federal student loan borrowers with disabilities who may be eligible for Total and Permanent Disability (TPD) loan discharge.

Read more about it here.

December 15th, 2015

Expanded Employment Opportunities for People with Disabilities

In the proposed settlement of  Lane v. Brown, a federal class action law suit filed in 2012, the state of Oregon has committed to provide more opportunities for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to work in competitive employment, and not just “sheltered workshops” where people generally earn less than minimum wage and don’t have opportunities for advancement or to get job skills or training that might lead to better work. Continue reading December 15th, 2015