Fisher v. City of Berkeley

In August 2023, DRA filed a lawsuit against the City of Berkeley on behalf of three disabled members of the Berkeley Commission on Disability for violating the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by failing to allow them to attend Commission meetings remotely as an accommodation unless they subject themselves to burdensome, dangerous, and invasive requirements. Read the complaint here.

Rather than grant federally required disability accommodations for members who require remote attendance, the City forced disabled Commission members to have their home addresses posted publicly as teleconference locations and open up their homes to any member of the public who wishes to enter and attend the meeting from there, ostensibly to comply with state law, despite the dangers to them and aggravations to their health that can result from doing so.

In addition to violating federal law, Defendant’s requirements were dangerous. Plaintiff Walsh is immunocompromised: requiring her to allow the public into her home places her in the exact danger she seeks to avoid, exposing her to unpredictable and unknown additional risk of infection. Both Plaintiffs Fischer and Pugh at times must attend Commission meetings remotely from bed—which required them to allow strangers into their homes, and potentially even bedrooms, during evening Commission meetings, which was both dangerous and intrusive. This placed them in an unreasonably vulnerable position simply to serve their community and participate in the Commission.

In September 2024, DRA reached a settlement with the City of Berkeley that provides significant policy changes for people who require remote meeting attendance due to their disabilities. The settlement resolves claims that Berkeley failed to accommodate commissioners who require remote attendance as an accommodation, in violation of the ADA.

Under the settlement agreement, among other things, the City of Berkeley agreed to  a new policy which provides remote attendance options for board members and commissioners with disabilities with no limit on the number of meetings a member may attend remotely. The agreement also requires Berkeley to train its employees on the new policy and its implementation. Read the policy.