In one of my most popular blog entries, ADA compliance auditing: higher education version, I mention technical standards in a comment to that entry. Many training programs as a condition of accreditation have developed technical standards that people in the program must meet in order to get into the program and stay into the
essential eligibility requirements
Should we now be asking when to bother with the Rehabilitation Act and preventive tips can come from anywhere
Jon Hyman’s blog is in my blogroll and I want to thank him for calling to my attention the case of Sjostrand v. The Ohio State University. Jon, as always, did a great job in his blog entry, but I want to take a different approach. What I want to discuss is how this…
Would having a disability protect you from being terminated for harassing others?
Consider: Employee/volunteer/Intern… with a disability is sexually harassing his or her coworkers. The disability is such that the employee/volunteer is unlikely to stop. The hiring authority terminates the employee/volunteer and the employee/volunteer sues the hiring authority for disability discrimination. This sounds very much like what could’ve been the case with the former Mayor of San…
Why all colleges, universities, and graduate programs need to do the two-step (with apologies to the state of Texas): essential eligibility requirements and direct threat
Just recently, the Department of Justice, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Education joined forces to issue a letter (the link will take you to the press release. In that press release, there is another link to the letter itself), to schools of medicine, schools of dentistry, schools of nursing,…
Title II, employment, and essential eligibility requirements
Before we get started on the blog entry, I want to thank everyone for their readership. This week, we should surpass the 1000 visitor mark. Also, we have now surpassed the 10,000 view mark. Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!
This blog entry explores whether title II of the ADA applies to employment issues, and how do you go about…
Enshrinement of unfair advantage as a legal standard: OCR, 504, and Sports
For years (every edition of my book starting with the very first edition published in 2000 has had a chapter on the ADA and sports), I’ve written about how the ADA applies to sports. The United States Department of Education Office of Civil Rights has just issued a guidance dealing with their section 504 regulations…
Segregation of HIV-positive inmates will not fly
Hope everyone had a great holiday season. Wishing everybody a healthy, happy, and successful new year! In case you want to take a break from bowl games over the next couple of days, here is something you might read:-)
Alabama and South Carolina are the only States segregating inmates that are HIV-positive. In the Alabama…
Are public colleges and public universities immune from suit as a result of sovereign immunity in ADA matters
In a previous blog entry, the principle of sovereign immunity and how they might apply to a County was discussed. What wasn’t discussed, was whether sovereign immunity would apply to a public university or public college. A case that addresses this is Doe v. Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska, 280…
Has the EEOC gone too far?
In an informal discussion letter, http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/foia/letters/2011/ada_qualification_standards.html , the EEOC said that using high school graduation as an automatic cut off for a job could lead to a situation where persons with disabilities are able to successfully claim that the requirement is unlawfully screening them out from the position since for a variety of reasons some…
Our first case
The first case we will talk about is Klene v. Trustees of Indiana University, 413 Fed. Appx. 919 (7th Cir. 2011). It is an unpublished decision and so before using it, you’ll want to check your rules on that as restrictions exist on how you can use unpublished decisions depending upon the jurisdiction you…