THE FUTURE OF DISABILITY LAW
Just published!
David Ferleger, Esq., Editor
This new volume is available from amazon.com.
Among the chapters are:
·
Pathways to Disability
Justice
·
Civil Rights Movements and
People with Disabilities
·
Access to Courts: A Model
Future, Achieved Today
·
U.N. Convention on the
Rights of People with Disabilities
·
Education: The School to
Prison Pipeline
·
The Medical Decision Process
·
Accommodations, Technology
& the Internet of Things
·
Aging and Disabilities
·
Offenders with Complex
Communication Needs
·
Criminal Justice and
Disability
·
What We Decide to Do as
People with Disabilities
·
Disability, the Law of the
Poor and the Future
In
celebration of the 25th anniversary of the enactment of the Americans with
Disabilities Act, nationally recognized disability rights advocates look ahead
to the next twenty-five years of disability law.
From
the introductory essay by David Ferleger, Esq.:
Cultural change is the final pathway to which I commend
attention. Many
of the essays in this volume see culture change as an essential underpinning to
advances for people with disabilities. In my view, seeking such
change requires a significantly refined articulation of our goals. Are we talking about accommodation? Inclusion?
Assimilation? Disability justice
advocates will need to pay increased attention to defining our direction as the
issues and competing solutions become more nuanced.
The essays in this volume delve into the past, examine
the present and anticipate various futures for achieving disability justice.
Understandably, some authors are optimistic, and others question the scope or
possibility of future progress. A number of authors present their own
experiences in earlier civil rights movements as models and inspiration for the
work they do now. Some speak to the issues from the perspective of their own
experience as people with disabilities.
One piece of the future appears clear, despite the
unknowns, we know now that we are in the midst of changing a system which sent
people with disabilities to separate places, to enter at the back door, to the
end of the line.[1] As
a distinguished jurist, who happens to be blind, has said, the demand today is
for “front door justice.”
What is the future of disability justice? We cannot count
on the past, even past successes, as harbingers of the future. Those successes
might block our visions of the future.
Only our imagination and creativity, and our actions, will unlock the
future
[1]
A cautionary note is appropriate regarding “deinstitutionalization” which ought
to go hand in hand with development of “most integrated” (the phrase is from Olmstead) community homes for people.
Sometimes, the community has replicated undesirable features of the
institution.
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