Welcome to Disability Rights Advocates
DRA is a non-profit law firm dedicated to protecting and advancing the civil rights of people with disabilities. DRA advocates for disability rights through high-impact litigation, as well as research and education. We do not charge our clients for our services. Learn more about DRA.
June 25, 2008: Senior Federal District Court Judge Samuel Conti has issued his decision in the landmark case brought on behalf of veterans suffering from PTSD and traumatic brain injury in July of 2007. The trial was conducted from April 21-30, 2008, and included a week of testimony in early March. The trial focused on the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care and adjudication systems for disabled veterans. The trial included testimony from the heads of national veterans’ organizations, top VA officials and some of the leading experts in the country on the widespread failings of the VA system.
Read the Press Release.DRA's 15th Anniversary Gala
October 16, 2008
5:30 PM to 9:00 PM
The Palace Hotel in San Francisco, CA
For sponsorship or ticket information, contact Pat Kirkpatrick at 510-665-8644 or e-mail at pkirkpatrick@dralegal.org
In April 2008, Plaintiffs reached a settlement agreement with the State regarding the use of the CAHSEE for students with disabilities. Pursuant to the Agreement, which has been preliminarily approved by the court, the State will fund a study of the CAHSEE by a neutral expert who will study its impact on students with disabilities. A report will be issued once the study is completed, which will include recommendations for necessary policy changes. The settlement represents an effort by the parties to find a long term solution to the problems that have been addressed in this case. DRA believes that the settlement offers a unique and valuable opportunity to gather the information necessary to make graduation requirements fair for students with disabilities in future graduating classes. Unfortunately, the settlement agreement does not provide for an exemption to the CAHSEE graduation requirement for special education students in the class of 2008, though legislation is pending in Sacramento that would provide such an exemption. Information on the settlement process may be found at http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/hs/kiddnotice.asp.
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Disability Rights Advocates (DRA), private co-counsel, and Sutter Health announced Friday, April 18, 2008, that the Sutter network of hospitals, medical foundations and other health care service providers has taken a big legal step toward further improving health care access for patients with mobility, visual, hearing and speech disabilities who seek care from Sutter facilities.
Read the Order in Adobe Format.Read the Exhibits in Adobe Format:
Exhibit A
Exhibit B
Exhibit C
Exhibit D
Exhibit E
Exhibit F
Exhibit G
Exhibit H
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On December 28, 2007, an en banc court of the Ninth Circuit returned the case to the district court for further review and analysis of UPS's use of the DOT hearing standard in its driver application process. We will post additional details about the next phase of the case when they become available, in approximately 60-90 days.
Read the Press Release.The Golden Gate National Recreational Area (GGNRA) and the National Park Service (NPS) are discriminating against individuals with disabilities by denying them access to GGNRA parks. In order to end this discrimination, Disability Rights Advocates (DRA), a California-based non-profit law firm, filed a class action complaint today in federal court on behalf of all people with mobility and vision disabilities who have been denied access to GGNRA parks.
Read the Press Release.Golfers with disabilities have scored a major victory in a lawsuit against Marriott International, Inc. In a disability civil rights case with far reaching implications, a federal court in San Francisco has ruled that Marriott is obligated under federal law to make accessible golf carts available for the use of disabled golfers. Even though hundreds of golf courses around the country have informally recognized that disabled golfers are entitled to this accommodation in order to access their courses, Marriott had said it had no obligation to the thousands of disabled and senior golfers who cannot play without an accessible golf cart.
Read the Press Release.Successfully applying for reasonable accommodations on high-stakes standardized tests, like the SAT and LSAT, is often an extremely challenging experience for students with well documented learning and visual disabilities. If you or someone you know is a person with a documented visual or learning disability who has applied for accommodations on the SAT or LSAT, but has been denied the testing accommodations that you requested, we want to hear your story. If you are a person with a visual disability who needs accessible LSAT preparation materials or has attempted to use the LSAC website to submit law school applications, we would also like to hear about your experiences. Please click here to share your experiences with the LSAC or SAT. Your help is absolutely crucial to our efforts to end discrimination against people with disabilities.
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