Disability Rights Law Course

Lesson 1 • Historical Development of Disability Rights

Traces advocacy movements from institutionalization to civil rights framing. Provides context for understanding why current legal frameworks are structured as they are.

Lesson 2 • Core Legal Principles and Frameworks

Introduces equal protection, non-discrimination, and reasonable accommodation as foundational legal concepts. Links these principles to the structure of disability statutes.

Lesson 3 • Defining Disability in Legal Contexts

Covers medical, social, and legal models of disability and how each shapes statutory definitions. Grounds students in the definitional disputes central to all subsequent legal analysis.

Lesson 1 • Voting, Transportation, and Technology Access

Surveys statutes ensuring accessible voting, public transit, and information technology. Broadens students' understanding of disability law beyond employment and education.

Lesson 2 • Housing and Fair Housing Protections

Examines disability provisions in fair housing law, including reasonable modifications and accessible design. Links housing access to the broader civil rights framework established earlier.

Lesson 3 • Public Accommodations and Services Law

Covers statutes requiring accessible goods, services, and facilities in public and commercial settings. Students distinguish between public entity obligations and private business requirements.

Lesson 4 • Rehabilitation and Education Statutes

Analyzes statutes governing vocational rehabilitation and special education entitlements. Demonstrates how education law extends disability rights to minors and transition-age youth.

Lesson 1 • Exclusions and Contested Conditions

Examines conditions explicitly excluded from coverage and those subject to ongoing litigation. Prepares students to handle edge cases and contested diagnoses in practice.

Lesson 2 • Qualified Individual Requirement

Analyzes the requirement that a person be qualified for the position or benefit at issue. Students learn to separate coverage questions from qualification questions in legal analysis.

Lesson 3 • Associational Discrimination

Covers protections for individuals discriminated against due to their association with a person with a disability. Extends coverage analysis beyond the individual claimant.

Lesson 1 • Conducting the Interactive Process

Details the step-by-step dialogue required between the parties to identify effective accommodations. Students practice mapping the process to real workplace and service scenarios.

Lesson 2 • Accommodation in Non-Employment Contexts

Extends accommodation principles to housing, education, and public services settings. Highlights how the interactive process and undue hardship standards adapt across sectors.

Lesson 3 • Undue Hardship Analysis

Applies the multi-factor undue hardship test to determine when an accommodation may be denied. Students practice weighing cost, operational impact, and organizational resources.

Lesson 4 • Evaluating Accommodation Effectiveness

Establishes the standard for what makes an accommodation legally sufficient versus merely preferred. Students learn to distinguish effective accommodations from ideal ones.

Lesson 1 • Harassment and Hostile Environment Claims

Applies hostile environment doctrine to disability-based harassment in employment and services. Students distinguish severe-or-pervasive conduct from isolated incidents.

Lesson 2 • Retaliation and Interference Claims

Analyzes protections against retaliation for exercising disability rights and interference with those rights. Students learn to identify protected activity and adverse action.

Lesson 3 • Disparate Treatment Theory

Covers intentional discrimination claims, burden-shifting frameworks, and pretext analysis. Connects to the non-discrimination mandate established in Chapter 2.

Lesson 4 • Defenses to Discrimination Claims

Surveys employer and entity defenses including direct threat, business necessity, and undue hardship. Students practice applying and rebutting each defense in context.

Lesson 1 • Available Remedies and Damages

Analyzes compensatory, punitive, and equitable remedies available under disability statutes. Students learn to match remedy type to claim theory and statutory cap rules.

Lesson 2 • Statute of Limitations and Procedural Bars

Identifies filing deadlines, tolling doctrines, and procedural defenses that can defeat otherwise valid claims. Students learn to spot and address procedural vulnerabilities early.

Lesson 3 • Government Enforcement and Compliance

Examines agency enforcement actions, compliance reviews, and consent decree monitoring. Students understand how government enforcement complements private litigation.

Lesson 4 • Administrative Enforcement Pathways

Maps agency charge-filing, investigation, and conciliation processes before litigation. Students learn exhaustion requirements and strategic timing decisions.

Lesson 1 • Disability Rights in Emergency Management

Covers obligations to include people with disabilities in emergency planning and disaster response. Students apply accommodation principles to high-stakes, time-sensitive contexts.

Lesson 2 • Government Benefits and Entitlement Programs

Analyzes disability definitions and procedural rights in public benefit programs. Students distinguish benefit eligibility standards from civil rights non-discrimination standards.

Lesson 3 • Healthcare Access and Non-Discrimination

Covers non-discrimination obligations of healthcare providers, hospitals, and insurers. Connects accommodation and effective communication duties to the medical services context.

Lesson 4 • Olmstead and Community Integration

Applies the integration mandate requiring community-based services over unnecessary institutionalization. Students analyze state planning obligations and enforcement strategies.

Lesson 1 • Training Program Design for Compliance

Covers design of staff training programs that build disability rights awareness and legal compliance. Students learn to tailor training content to role-specific legal obligations.

Lesson 2 • Conducting Disability Rights Audits

Provides a structured methodology for assessing an organization's legal compliance posture. Students apply audit frameworks to physical, programmatic, and communication accessibility.

Lesson 3 • Drafting Accommodation Policies

Guides students through drafting legally compliant accommodation request and response policies. Integrates interactive process and undue hardship standards from Chapter 4.

Lesson 4 • Advising Organizations on Legal Risk

Develops skills to identify, communicate, and mitigate disability law legal risk for organizational clients. Students practice risk assessment, counseling, and strategic recommendation writing.